Box 5: Kamal doxxing Hudson Common Sense Editors, and City Hall Staff doing the same to private residents, captures why many Hudson Common Sense writers avoid bylines. People want to debate policy, not fend off digital tantrums. It is also why so many guest op-eds, letters, and editorials run without names. The risk-return calculus is simple: minor civic commentary is not worth becoming a target for someone who treats Facebook like a contact sport. Still, several residents recognized Hugo on the street, thanked him for his work, and one even offered to buy him lunch. Our editors can only imagine how Kamal will react when he eventually learns the identity of the Hudson Wail. ;)

As we are wont to do, a quick fact check:

“Calls himself Elon Musk 2.0.”

Not a single editor at Hudson Common Sense has ever referred to themselves that way. This is a months-old, tired attempt by Kamal and Tom DePietro to staple their critics to public figures they assume Hudson dislikes.

It points to a deeper problem that affects talent in public office in Hudson. No competent person with a career of national or local significance would want to put herself in the position to be called, falsely and without any evidence, a white supremacist, racist, or sexist. ****A mayor who burns time doxxing residents instead of delivering measurable results will not recruit A-level civil servants. Professionals choose environments that demand competence, not stamina for nonsense.

If Hudson wants top talent, the online moralization and tabooization of mundane, municipal, minutiae has to stop. No city builds a functional government while its leadership behaves like bored teenagers with TikTok burner accounts.

Kamal did include a photo of Hugo, ostensibly to “out” him as one of the Hudson Common Sense Editors. Our editors note only that it falls outside the Common Sense brand and style guide. To streamline any future doxxing attempts, we have prepared a small visual toolkit that he is welcome to draw from:

Original photo credit goes to Hudson’s talented photographer of current and future Nobel Laureates, Tanya Malott.

Hudson Common Sense has added new editors who look forward to holding public office holders to account. Onwards & upwards!