John Hoff: Embittered Hack
Most of you probably don't know who John Hoff is. Until about a week ago I didn't either. Apparently he's some sort of journalist/columnist who lived and worked in North Dakota at one time (the Grand Forks area) but has since moved to Minnesota. His new job in Minnesota, I guess, is to write as many mean-spirited and juvenile columns about North Dakota as he can for his new employer Minnesota Daily.
Here's an excerpt from his latest screed:
Basically he's calling North Dakotans a bunch of retards. Oh sure he says the "retard" thing came from an angry North Dakotan emailing him in defense of the state, but I'm not buying it. After all, who writes to defend their home state by saying any criticism of the state is like picking on a retarded cousin?
I think Hoff is just making things up.
Here's an excerpt from the previous column he alludes to above:
Lovely, no? Here's more:
If you're keeping score at home that's two not-so-subtle digs at North Dakota's apparently rampant problem with incest. Real mature.
So what drives a man to write stuff like this? Certainly North Dakota has its problems, but neither is it the economic and social black hole Hoff makes it out to be.
North Dakota's economy is booming. Tax receipts are way ahead of expectations, with our unemployment rate at 2.5% employers are screaming for workers and the state government - as of October of last year - had a $100 million budget surplus.
Things are, on the whole, looking pretty bright for North Dakota. Even our famous "brain drain" (the state losing populaiton, specifically college-aid citizens) which Hoff alludes to seems to have slackened a bit of late. Probably due to the high demand for workers in the state.
So again, what's this Hoff dude's problem? Well, I guess you sort of have to know his history. Hoff (who also goes by John Hoffman) moved to North Dakota from Seattle to attend the University of North Dakota and be near his family. Shortly after arriving he, like thirty days after arriving, he ran for the Grand Forks City Council on the "Green Party" ticket although he wasn't officially a member of that party (he describes himself as a "green libertarian." He won the position on a fluke (he beat out a write-in candidate by just six votes after the incumbent left town) and found himself on the City Council just over a month after he moved into the city itself.
Hoff's tenure on the city council didn't last long. He was elected in May of 2000, but by October citizens - angered by Hoff's childish antics on the council - had organized a petition for a recall election and got Hoff booted off the council.
I'm not sure where Hoff went after that - he may have finished up his time at UND, I'm not sure - but we do know where he is now: Living in Minnesota, cloaked in embittered self-righteousness and penning sneeringly juvenile columns about the state that cast him out. His current writings display all of the petulant childishness that caused his term as a councilman to be cut short. The letter he wrote to the Grand Forks radio station KNOX in response talk show host Dakota Huseby calling him an "arse" on her blog (he has threatened to file a complaint with the FCC over that, which is ludicrous given that the FCC does not regulate internet content) is yet another example of just how unhinged this man really is.
But I won't sink to Hoff's level. I won't call into question his relationship with his relatives nor will I call him a retard. But I will defend my home state. Because North Dakota is not a hell-hole. Sure the rural living and cold climate isn't for everybody, but neither is the state worthy of the petty rants of a man like Hoff.
Here's an excerpt from his latest screed:
It would be fair to say many native North Dakotans were not especially fond of my last column, “Have you hugged a ‘Nodak’ today?” One sent me an e-mail that began “Dear Craphead” and compared my critique of North Dakota to, in their words, picking on a retarded cousin. They then went on to say that they would defend North Dakota but that they were satisified [sic] that North Dakotans were, like “retards,” happy the way they were.
Basically he's calling North Dakotans a bunch of retards. Oh sure he says the "retard" thing came from an angry North Dakotan emailing him in defense of the state, but I'm not buying it. After all, who writes to defend their home state by saying any criticism of the state is like picking on a retarded cousin?
I think Hoff is just making things up.
Here's an excerpt from the previous column he alludes to above:
Nodaks have a fierce, defensive loyalty to their home state, kind of like certain children of abusive and alcoholic parents who also commit incest. Many Nodaks feel pained when somebody like me says things like: The five years I lived in North Dakota seemed more like 25 years. In prison, I mean.
From an early age, Nodaks are brainwashed with an idea that their state is both filled with untapped potential and, simultaneously, in a crisis because its youths keep leaving. Some of that alleged untapped potential includes, um, WIND POWER. Oh, yeah, North Dakota is just full of wind power potential. Why, it's the Saudi Arabia of wind energy hurruph, hurruph. And you can support yourself in North Dakota on a dream like that, sort of like you can support yourself on a stiff breeze by having faith in your heart and leaning against it.
Lovely, no? Here's more:
So while students who grow up in Minnesota (or most places with a future) feel free to live and move as they choose, Nodaks, who deal with a lifetime of brainwashing, face an agonizing decision when it comes time to go to college. The Twin Cities is an overwhelmingly popular choice and, indeed, the Twin Cities exerted a strong influence on North Dakota even prior to statehood. But fleeing for the Twin Cities means, in effect, shrugging off North Dakota's long and ugly list of problems and the hallucination of all that pipe dream potential.
Oh, yes, so very much potential like... like ... uh, OK like this plan Rep. Earl Pomeroy has for supposed "clean" technology to burn up the state's "800-year supply of lignite coal." (Due to a lack of warm bodies, North Dakota has only one U.S. representative. Pretty weird, huh? Like when your father and grandfather are the same person.)
If you're keeping score at home that's two not-so-subtle digs at North Dakota's apparently rampant problem with incest. Real mature.
So what drives a man to write stuff like this? Certainly North Dakota has its problems, but neither is it the economic and social black hole Hoff makes it out to be.
North Dakota's economy is booming. Tax receipts are way ahead of expectations, with our unemployment rate at 2.5% employers are screaming for workers and the state government - as of October of last year - had a $100 million budget surplus.
Things are, on the whole, looking pretty bright for North Dakota. Even our famous "brain drain" (the state losing populaiton, specifically college-aid citizens) which Hoff alludes to seems to have slackened a bit of late. Probably due to the high demand for workers in the state.
So again, what's this Hoff dude's problem? Well, I guess you sort of have to know his history. Hoff (who also goes by John Hoffman) moved to North Dakota from Seattle to attend the University of North Dakota and be near his family. Shortly after arriving he, like thirty days after arriving, he ran for the Grand Forks City Council on the "Green Party" ticket although he wasn't officially a member of that party (he describes himself as a "green libertarian." He won the position on a fluke (he beat out a write-in candidate by just six votes after the incumbent left town) and found himself on the City Council just over a month after he moved into the city itself.
Hoff's tenure on the city council didn't last long. He was elected in May of 2000, but by October citizens - angered by Hoff's childish antics on the council - had organized a petition for a recall election and got Hoff booted off the council.
I'm not sure where Hoff went after that - he may have finished up his time at UND, I'm not sure - but we do know where he is now: Living in Minnesota, cloaked in embittered self-righteousness and penning sneeringly juvenile columns about the state that cast him out. His current writings display all of the petulant childishness that caused his term as a councilman to be cut short. The letter he wrote to the Grand Forks radio station KNOX in response talk show host Dakota Huseby calling him an "arse" on her blog (he has threatened to file a complaint with the FCC over that, which is ludicrous given that the FCC does not regulate internet content) is yet another example of just how unhinged this man really is.
But I won't sink to Hoff's level. I won't call into question his relationship with his relatives nor will I call him a retard. But I will defend my home state. Because North Dakota is not a hell-hole. Sure the rural living and cold climate isn't for everybody, but neither is the state worthy of the petty rants of a man like Hoff.
