After seeing a television report about Minneapolis the other day, the Bohunk and I coined what seemed to be a new word: horrification. My AI assistant noted that the word has actually been around a long time, used by writers to emphasize horror unfolding or being inflicted. It applies here: the horrification of our community began the moment the first chemical canister was deployed directly into the face of an unarmed citizen, pinned to the ground by three large ICE agents— an act of pure brutality.
This column begins my fifth year as a freelance writer for the Northshore Journal. In the past four years, my humble efforts have resulted in over 300,000 words on the newsprint: enough “content” to fill two or three novels, and up to six business books. Not much of what I’ve written expresses the depth of my anger when the President, his appointees, and Republican members of Congress describe our state as a hellhole of terrorists and criminals who hate America. They go on to revel in a pseudomilitary occupying force made up of lightly trained and heavily armed SEAL Team Six wannabes who are terrorizing people across the state. I recently stumbled upon “A Man Without a Country” by Kurt Vonnegut. The title alone earned a place in my library because I feel like a man without a country, too. Vonnegut, a countercultural icon, used a simple “Midwestern” voice and absurdist lenses to advocate for human decency and pacifism. The disconnect between federal rhetoric and the reality I see is wider than the Grand Canyon.
Even though, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), land travel from Canada to the USA fell by more than 30% in 2025, the Minnesota economy was quite robust. Total retail sales were up 4.1% year over year. The 2025 holiday season was a critical “reality check” for the state. Minnesota followed the national trend, with holiday sales increasing 3.7% to 4.2% compared to 2024.
Statewide, the lodging industry saw modest revenue growth following 2024, a year of record-breaking visitation. The growth is partly due to higher room rates rather than more people staying in hotels. Northeastern Minnesota (including the North Shore) continued to command the state’s highest room rates, averaging over $150 per night. While occupancy dipped slightly by about 1%, perhaps due to a decline in Canadian visitors, the region’s “premium” status kept it more profitable than other rural areas. Tourism-related retail remained strong.
The word hellscape generally refers to a scene or area that is so unpleasant, dangerous, or chaotic that people wouldn’t venture into it. A landscape transformed by disaster, such as a city after a firebombing or an area devastated by climate-driven wildfires. It is a hyperbolic term used to describe a place suffering from extreme social decay, rampant crime, or systemic failure. At a 2024 rally, current President Trump stated that under current leadership, “Minneapolis is a shadow of its former self” and described the state’s urban centers as “war zones” and “hellholes.”
If those descriptions are accurate, can anyone explain the actual success of major league sporting events? Literally hundreds of thousands of people entered the Twin Cities metro to attend football, baseball, hockey, soccer, and basketball games. Not to mention major concerts in the sports venues. None of those events happened in a war zone or hellhole. Somebody is making stuff up.
Consumer spending at sporting events in 2025 was marked by ticket price inflation, which grew by roughly 15% year over year. A typical attendee at a major league game in Minnesota spent between $120 and $160 per event. For a family of four attending a Twins game, the average cost was approximately $270–$300. For a Vikings game, this figure often exceeds $600 due to higher average ticket prices.
Tourism-related retail remained strong. Explore Minnesota reported a record 81.6 million visitors who spent over $14.7 billion in the state through late 2025, providing a vital cushion for rural retail hubs.
Political analysts in Minnesota note that the word “hellscape” is intentionally chosen because it is “algorithm-friendly”—it generates high social media engagement. It creates a vivid, emotional image that is hard to ignore, even though the actual data (on crime or the economy) do not support such an extreme label.
Our people are being manipulated, and as someone with a strong distrust of authority figures, I think it’s time for a wake-up call.
“What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without senses of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations and made it all their own?”
A Man Without a Country
Kurt Vonnegut
Copyright 2005
