In all the years I have lived in America, I have never heard a single negative word about Norway from Americans. It is always “Oh, it’s so beautiful” and “I would so love to go there”. That is why this story struck me so hard.
The Left’s despicable harassment of American tourists continues. What is particularly revealing is that the organisers refuse to accept criticism.
Instead, they remain entrenched in their position and even portray the Americans as the height of impudence because they defended themselves with “fuck you”. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
Adresseavisen Facebook.
This is made abundantly clear in opinion pieces written by Astrid Kjelsnes, secretary of LO in Trondheim, and Ludvig Sjöström in Adresseavisen. Both articles are responses to the piece by Arild Svendsli (Progress Party), “The Left Increasingly Appears to Be What It Claims to Demonstrate Against”.
I have analysed the principal claims made by Kjelsnes and Sjöström and requested responses from them and from LO members. Questions and comments have been sent to Adresseavisen, Astrid Kjelsnes, Ludvig Sjöström, Arild Svendsli and all the actors involved in the demonstration.
The headline is taken from one of Sjöström’s comments: “If it gets a little noisy on the quay, we can live with that.”
What I cannot forget is the image of the elderly man making his unsteady way down the stairs from the cruise ship. He clings to the handrail and appears frail and old.
Still image from Nidaros video.
We can say with certainty that they were enormously excited about coming to Norway. In all the years I have lived in America, I have never heard a single negative word about Norway from Americans.
It is always “Oh, it’s so beautiful”, “I would so love to go there”, “The people there are so beautiful”, or “I could imagine living there”. That is why this story struck me so hard.
Questions and Comments on Astrid Kjelsnes’ Article
Here is my analysis and the questions sent in full. If I receive a response, I will follow up.
Who Are MAGA?
Kjelsnes’ headline is: Let Us Not Forget What MAGA Stands For. My question to Kjelsnes, LO and the other groups that organised the demonstration is therefore: What exactly do you believe MAGA stands for?
The figures vary, but according to a 2025 survey by Economist/YouGov, approximately 53% of Republicans identify as MAGA. That amounts to around 55–60 million Americans, nearly one in five adult residents of the United States.
These people are not a small extremist fringe. They are ordinary Americans from every walk of life and race: workers, nurses, teachers, small business owners, pensioners, young and old, poor and middle class.
Are these ordinary people the ones you believe deserve to be greeted with slogans such as “Fascists Go Home”, “MAGA Go Home”, “Let it Sink”, and signs describing them as “rats in 1349” and “cockroaches in 2026”?
Strong Unions Make Norway Great
Astrid Kjelsnes writes:
When we in the labour movement expressed our opposition, the goal was precisely to defend these values against an ideology that threatens them. We wanted to send the MAGA movement a clear message that “Strong unions make Norway great”, in direct contrast to its own policies.
Kjelsnes mentions that Donald Trump in 2025 signed an executive order depriving more than one million public employees of collective bargaining rights and trade-union rights.
This applied only to public employees in agencies where national security is the primary mission, and it was justified on national-security grounds. The Norwegian government regularly uses compulsory arbitration to halt lawful strikes, often citing threats to life and health or to vital social functions.
Why is it a threat to democracy when Trump does it for reasons of national security, but perfectly acceptable when the Norwegian government does the same?
But why is this really relevant to Norway? Have Norwegians suffered because of this policy to such an extent that it justifies harassing ordinary pensioners and families on holiday in Norway?
Why not devote this energy to the actual problems in Norwegian working life?
Social dumping, labour-market crime and the exploitation of foreign workers are widespread. Many cleaners, service workers and healthcare workers have low wages and poor working conditions.
Respect for Freedom of Expression
Kjelsnes writes:
The cornerstones of Norwegian democracy are precisely respect for freedom of expression.
Should tourists not then be allowed to come to Norway on holiday without being subjected to organised harassment and hateful slogans simply because they hold political views different from those of LO and the Socialist Left Party (SV)?
Collective Guilt and 6 January
Kjelsnes writes:
Let us not forget what this movement stands for: on 6 January 2021, they attempted to overturn a lawful election result.
We have already established that around 55–60 million Americans identify as MAGA. Only a few thousand people were physically present inside the Capitol building on 6 January, and a few thousand more were outside.
Does Kjelsnes believe that all 55–60 million supported the violence at the Capitol and that every one of them bears responsibility for what happened that day?
If the answer is yes, would you also say that all Democrats must be held responsible for the violence, destruction and deaths during the BLM and Antifa riots of 2020?
There was more than $2 billion in damage, several dozen people were killed, thousands of police officers injured, and entire neighbourhoods were devastated in several American cities.
LO’s and Amnesty’s Selective Activism
Kjelsnes writes:
Organisations such as Amnesty International Norway have repeatedly warned of a marked deterioration in human rights and freedom of expression in the United States under this movement.
We have noticed no such thing here in the United States. In fact, it was worse under the Biden administration.
But this graph shows the best and worst performers in terms of human rights, and was produced by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
If LO is so concerned about human rights and freedom of expression, are you planning similar demonstrations against tourists from the 25 worst countries on this list?
Norway is not even in the top ten and differs from the United States by only 0.02 points.
Should LO not instead devote its efforts to getting Norway to the very top of the human-rights rankings rather than harassing tourists from a country that ranks immediately behind us?
Is Islam Compatible with LO’s Ideology?
Astrid Kjelsnes writes:
For more than an hour we asked our political opponents to go home, because we do not want a corresponding ideology in Norway.
Does this mean that you want to expel everyone who does not share your ideology, including those who live in Norway? Is Islam compatible with LO’s ideology, considering that there are more than 200,000 registered members of religious communities in Norway?
A Malicious but Peaceful Demonstration
Astrid Kjelsnes writes:
Our demonstration was peaceful, and we allowed the tourists to pass us in their coaches without any form of blockade or resistance. Yes, for a brief moment a few attendees shouted “Let the boat sink”, but this was quickly stopped and respected by those present.
To call it “peaceful” simply because the tourists were allowed to pass in their buses is to employ a very narrow definition of the word. The comments were hateful and dehumanising, no matter how much LO tries to downplay them.
Peaceful does not merely mean “no physical blockade”. It also means not confronting people with hatred, harassment and dehumanising language.
Furthermore, video footage shows that the chants of “Let it sink” were not quickly suppressed and appeared to form part of the slogans.
Screenshots from Nidaros’ video.
He Could Have Been Our Grandfather
But let us look closely at the still image from Nidaros’ video if we are to consider the human side of the matter. In the foreground we see an elderly man making his unsteady way down the stairs from the cruise ship.
He clings to the handrail and appears frail and old. This, then, is one of the tourists whom Kjelsnes and LO believe deserved the appalling welcome they received in Norway.
If this had been your own grandmother or grandfather disembarking in a foreign country and being met with such a hateful reception, would you have called it a “peaceful demonstration”?
Or would you have called it exactly what it was: a degrading and malicious harassment of an elderly, vulnerable tourist on holiday?
Portraying Themselves as Victims
Kjelsnes writes:
We were met with middle fingers, “fuck you”, and a mooning from participants on the ship. That is perfectly acceptable and well within the bounds of the freedom of expression we should have.
This appears to be an attempt to turn the situation on its head and portray yourselves as the victims.
What exactly did you expect to be met with? When you say that something is “well within the bounds of the freedom of expression we should have”, does that also apply to calling people cockroaches and rats?
Ordinary People Are Deeply Shocked
Astrid Kjelsnes writes:
What is not acceptable, however, is that the comment sections have since been filled with specific death threats.
I have reviewed a large number of Facebook comment sections relating to this case and have not seen a single death threat. What I have seen, however, is an almost unanimous reaction from ordinary Norwegians who are deeply upset and shocked by the treatment of the American tourists.
What does it say about LO and the demonstrators when a large part of the Norwegian public reacts with disgust to the action in Trondheim?
And while we are discussing threats: is not the chant “Let it sink”, directed at a cruise ship full of people, a threat in itself?
No Millionaires in Norway?
Great emphasis was placed on the claim that the Americans were millionaires and members of an economic elite. But Norway also has many millionaires and billionaires. Several of them actively support the Left, LO and the Labour Party. Is not the Prime Minister himself a millionaire?
Yet we have never seen LO organise demonstrations with slogans such as “Let the yacht sink” or signs calling Norwegian millionaires rats and cockroaches when they sail into Oslo.
Why this selective outrage over American “MAGA” millionaires?
Questions Regarding Ludvig Sjöström’s Article
In his article entitled “No, the Left Did Not Become Authoritarian by Demonstrating”, Sjöström writes that Progress Party politician Svendsli has turned the concept of “authoritarian” completely on its head. Sjöström writes, among other things:
Referring to people as “rats” and “cockroaches” is reprehensible. If it is true that a local SV politician held such a sign, it deserves severe criticism. Such language has a pitch-black history and belongs nowhere, least of all in an anti-fascist protest. The same applies to calls to let the ship sink. Such rhetoric should be condemned without reservation. But from there, Svendsli’s logic goes completely off the rails.
Sjöström writes that this has not been confirmed in the press. That is something we at Document have now done. Let us show a close-up. This was beneath an SV banner. Calls to let the ship sink have also been confirmed above.
Sjöström writes that Progress Party politician Svendsli turns a single sign and a few chants into proof of what the entire “Left” stands for. He writes:
That is a gross and unserious generalisation. Protesting against the reactionary MAGA movement and Hillsdale College is not the same as hating “conservative Americans” as a group. One can and should distinguish between sharp political attacks and blind hatred.
As mentioned, MAGA encompasses more than 50 million people. Why is calling MAGA a reactionary movement not itself a gross and unserious generalisation? If not, why not?
Sjöström writes:
If that is the case, it demonstrates a lack of understanding of what authoritarianism actually is. Authoritarian forces are characterised by their use of power to silence opponents and deprive people of fundamental rights, something the MAGA movement itself has ironically shown a disturbing willingness to flirt with.
We have already established that both Kjelsnes and Sjöström (and LO) display a lack of understanding of what MAGA actually is. But when we speak of authoritarian forces being characterised by their use of power to silence opponents and deprive people of fundamental rights, is that not precisely what was done in Trondheim?
You used organised power to silence and harass American tourists and literally attempted to drive them out of Norway solely because of their political views.
Is that not an attempt to silence opponents and deprive people of fundamental rights—the right to enjoy a holiday in peace?
It Just Gets a Little Noisy on the Quay
Sjöström writes:
Yes, we should condemn dehumanising rhetoric, especially when it comes from our own ranks. But no, we should not buy the Progress Party’s narrative that demonstrating against reactionary environments makes you authoritarian. Using a raised voice against ideologies one despises does not make one a fascist. If it gets a little noisy on the quay, we can live with that.
Now that I, Tove Elisabeth Rooney, have demonstrated the dehumanising rhetoric in which Americans were called rats and cockroaches beneath an official SV banner, will you, Sjöström, and LO finally confront it?
Or will you continue to defend and minimise one of the most embarrassing and revealing episodes in the recent history of LO and the Norwegian Left?
What About Community Service, LO?
By the way, here are some of those “reactionary” students from Hillsdale College.
Among other things, they carry out extensive voluntary work through programmes such as “Adopt a Grandparent”, in which students give time, care and companionship to elderly people.
Another programme is “A Few Good Men”, in which students help the elderly, the disabled and the poor with gardening, home repairs and other practical tasks.
Perhaps LO and the other groups that participated in this week’s demonstrations should devote their energy to similar community service rather than harassing American pensioners on holiday.
