'Nye's is better off dead': Minnesotans air contrarian opinions with hilarious hashtag

If you secretly hate something that is beloved by everyone else in the Twin Cities, we've got a hashtag for you.

At 11:14 a.m. Tuesday, Minneapolis freelance writer Jerard Fagerberg opened the Pandora's box of local snarkiness and discontent by asking on Twitter, "What are your #ControversialTwinCitiesTakes."

As he explained in a City Pages article on Wednesday, his tweet was inspired by musing on how much he disliked the Walker Art Center.

He thought others might have some similar unpopular opinions but they were afraid to say it.

"If there's one thing Minnesotans are good at, it's suppressing controversial ideas," Fagerberg wrote. With his tweet, he was announcing, "It was time for some communal bloodletting."

Given permission to be passive aggressive no more, tweeters responded by exposing their contrarian views, bashing a host of local icons, sacred cows, popular beliefs and beloved institutions.

Here's just some of them:

Even some local critics have contributed to the discussion. (Hey, that's why they're critics.)

"People really dug it," Fagerberg said of the controversial opinions that rolled in.

He said the #ControversialTwinCitiesTakes created a safe place for people to say it plain in a land where niceness is the norm and "That's different" is harsh criticism.

"You really need to guard the way you talk here," said Fagerberg, who is originally from Massachusetts. "It's something I've struggled with."

He said some of the tweets were mainly seeking to be funny. Others weren't so surprising.

"I knew for a fact that someone would say something about Prince or the State Fair or Bob Dylan. It's low hanging fruit," he said.

But others seemed to touch on some genuine complaints.

"Music journalists and bigger radio stations are hella white. Black artists have to die to get recognized here," read one.

For the record, Fagerberg doesn't agree with all the responses he's retweeted. He doesn't think the local music scene is overrated and he's fine with the number of craft breweries in town.