Trolling has a new Definition

These days trolling no longer means what it once did.

Trolls Force Artist to Cancel a Planned Greta Thunberg Mural in North Dakota

Really? So what actually happened, then?

Drama is afoot in the capital of North Dakota. The state is the site of both the famous Standing Rock protests of 2016 andsome of the country’s greatest crude oil reserves. And it was going to be home to one amazing mural of 17-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg in Bismarck, North Dakota until a whole bunch of people got pissed off.

I can appreciate that. I don’t want to see murals of the annoying little tick either. But that’s not trolling. Unless trolling now means dares to disagree. Oh, I think that is exactly what it now means.

The artist had hoped to share the image—whose original plate now sits in the Library of Congress where Balkowitsch expects it to last for generations—on the wall of an alleyway in Bismarck. It was to be one of his most important pieces, he told Earther. A 7-foot tall mural was set to cover the wall of the Brick Oven Bakery, but when media covered the artist’s proposal, locals kinda bugged out.

Yeah? And so what? Greta Thunberg is not the messiah, she’s just a very naughty girl sock puppet for the green lobby, who is playing hookie from school and peddling bullshit during what appears to be a very long temper tantrum. Why should we lionise her? And why should we have to have murals of her? And since when did proffering this perfectly reasonable objection become trolling?

Some commenters noted they’d rather have someone from their state adorn the downtown wall, but others went as far as to promise to boycott or badmouth the bakery. Balkowitsch was not expecting this backlash, but some lunatics really fucking hate this teen, man. It’s pretty sad to see grown-ass adults bashing a teen who is, uh, literally fighting for the right to a livable future.

Given that the bakery doesn’t own the building, it’s a bit tough on them. However, the idea that Saint Gritty is saving the world is a trope that needs nipping in the bud. She is doing no such thing. She wants to drag us back to the pre-industrial dark ages with all the suffering and death that will entail. She wants to do this because she is a know-nothing teenager who is skipping school instead of getting an education. And, no, we should not be daubing buildings with her image.

The state is the second biggest oil producer in the U.S. after Texas and is highly conservative. The fracking boom has brought a wave of jobs and man camps (which are a whole other problem) to North Dakota. Jobs are good, but continuing to frack the planet and mine for coal are a path to destruction.

Talking of tropes – this one is cold pressed latinum coated bullshit complete with diamond encrustation. Of course Dakotans are going to object. This lunatic wants to put them out of work and onto the breadline with her half-baked, idiotic extremism.

“I know we’re in the middle of oil country, but I’m an artist here,” Balkowitsch told Earther. “This is where I’m from, so am I supposed to install my art somewhere else?”

Yup. A gallery, perhaps.

Unfortunately, all this drama pushed the artist to withdraw his mural proposal. Instead, he’s looking to install it elsewhere. He’s heard interest from places in Fargo, North Dakota, and New York City, so there’s a chance that this mural may wind up living in a few places instead of just one.

Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

That’s great, but what a loss for Bismarck’s residents. Thunberg is a symbol of the greater youth movement doing all it can to prevent total climate chaos. She’s done nothing except speak her mind and call out the industry and corporate shills who are knowingly destroying her (and our) future.

It would seem that Bismark’s residents don’t think it a loss. Indeed, they appear to have got rid of a potential eyesore and well done to them.

As for shills, the only shill here is Gritty.

For that, she’s attacked by strangers online and a totally innocuous art installation has been canceled as a result. What a time to be alive.

The lack of self-awareness here is stunning. Welcome to the cancel culture. You people have nurtured this beast, now you can live with the consequences. My sympathy is less than zero. And the sooner Saint Gritty disappears into well deserved obscurity, the better.

On a related note, this pretentious twat uses wet plate colliodion. A process that uses toxic chemicals and is, to say the least, not remotely environmentally friendly. But it’s okay when they do it because reasons.

9 Comments

  1. Wonder what her reaction might be if some out of town twerp decided to do a 8ft mural of D J Trump bang in the centre of her community.

  2. From her biography:

    ‘I’m not your average journalist, though: I’m Latina. I’m queer. I’m one of the few reporters covering the intersection where race and the environment meet.‘

    I think it’s fair to say you know before she even puts her hands to the keyboard anything she writes is going to be utter bollocks

  3. As I always say when faced with the wibblings of the enviroloons, if fossil fuels are so evil and bad then stop using them. That way they will either find out that it is impossible and shut up, or die. Either way is a win for the rest of us. As for Greta Thunberg, yes it applies to her too, she needs to see what being robbed of her future really looks like.

  4. Re: wet plate collodion and toxic chemicals.
    To paraphrase Laurence Fox, it’s OK when they do it if they then use their platform to tell us not to do it. Whatever “it” is.

    BTW, Firefox quibbled over your spelling of colliodion/collodion. Google prefers the latter.

    • I’ve managed to slip an extra “i” in there.

      Laurence Fox seems to have struck a chord. He is still attracting flack and is still winding the bastards up. Meanwhile normal people are cheering him on because he speaks for us and we are tired of these extreme hard left nutters getting away with bullying us.

  5. They don’t like it when their tactics are used against them. I certainly wouldn’t want that monstrosity in my town.

    And:

    ‘Gold’ pressed Latinum. Quark would be appalled…

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