By Benjamin Cross
When you walk into a small-town diner in Vermont, you expect a hot cup of coffee, a plate of eggs, and maybe a friendly chat about the weather. What you don’t expect is for the business to be run by someone who openly wishes death upon her neighbors.
That’s exactly what’s happening at The Hartland Diner, owned by Nicole Bartner, right here in Windsor County. Instead of building community, Bartner has turned her diner’s Facebook page into a platform for rage, insults, and hostility. The evidence is right there in her own posts (see screenshots).
One post calls Republicans “filthy Rebs” who should “die screaming in a fire.” Another celebrates the death of Charlie Kirk and spins it into bizarre conspiracy theories. Others sneer at Christians, mocking scripture and praying that white evangelicals would vanish by sundown so “the rest of us can eat our pie in peace.”
This isn’t just “politics mixed with breakfast.” This is hate speech with hash browns.
The Line Bartner Crossed
Some will shrug and say, “It’s her page, she can say what she wants.” True — free speech covers a lot of ground, even the ugly parts. But let’s not confuse free speech with decent speech. When a local business owner uses her public platform to call for people to burn alive or disappear, it’s not just tasteless — it’s dangerous.
Free speech means you can speak without government punishment. It doesn’t mean the community has to stay silent while a business owner publicly dehumanizes her neighbors.
This Isn’t Vermont
Vermont is small. Hartland is smaller. We know our neighbors. We look out for one another. We’ve always prided ourselves on civility, even when we disagree.
Disagreement is healthy. Debate is necessary. But open calls for violence? Mocking the faith of half the town? That’s not Vermont. That’s not community. That’s bitterness, weaponized.
When a diner stops serving food and starts serving verbal venom, it ceases to be a place of welcome. It becomes something else entirely — a pulpit of hate dressed up as a breakfast joint.
A Choice for the Community
So here’s the question: Do you want your dollars funding this kind of rhetoric? Every cup of coffee sold is fuel for a business that mocks, demeans, and divides. Every time the community shrugs, it gives permission. And permission is how this kind of ugliness spreads.
Hartland deserves better. Vermont deserves better. A diner should bring people together, not cheer for their destruction.
The truth is simple: we don’t strengthen our state or our country by standing silent when local businesses preach hate. We strengthen it by saying, loud and clear: “No thanks — not here, not now, not ever.”
🔥 Final word: Hartland, Vermont doesn’t need a hate-pulpit disguised as a diner. And the fact that Nicole Bartner has chosen to make her business a megaphone for hate means the community has every right to push back. Don’t feed it with your silence — or your wallet.
54 responses to “When a Diner Turns into a Pulpit of Hate”
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I find it interesting that when the MAGA party members finds a liberal/democrat who matches their energy, they are so quick to call fallacy. Freedom of speech is also for people who don’t think exactly like you….. since when did republicans turn so sensitive?
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Of course. But there is FREE speech and there’s HATE speech. She is simply full of hate.
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Carly Miley, I think your comment is the stupidest comment I’ve ever seen. Since when do Magans use hateful rhetoric such as this??? Never! Maybe you should learn a thing or two about us before commenting on the shit!
Also, this is NOT Vermont! This is the state that is humble and quiet. The more out of staters that have come here and bought up our farm land and caused our taxes to sky rocket, has definitely steered our state of peace in the wrong direction. It’s sad that it’s no longer home and now being overrun with far left radical democrats who only want to harm those who think differently.
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May I suggest to Nicole partner that she put her money where her mouth is and gift the Hartland Diner to the tribes of Vermont who suffered genocide and the stealing of their lands. It is a small gesture, nonetheless a token of her fierce belief and one step in righting a wrong. I would greatly admire her willingness to step up and do her part and be a power of example to us all. These are currently the recognized troves in Vermont:
Tribe Status
• The Elnu Abenaki Tribe was acknowledged through
State Recognition on April 22, 2011
• The Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe acknowledged through
State Recognition on April 22, 2011
• The Koasek Traditional Band of the Koas Abenaki
Nation was acknowledged through State
Recognition on May 7, 2012
• Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi was acknowledged through State Recognition on May 7, 2012 -
You covered it all with one word, “bitter.” So sad.
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I read your article and then read each of her posts. I think you’re overreacting. She’s an angry, politically active person. With our democracy in shreds and the American Fascist Party (calling themselves Republicans after betraying every honorable Republican principle) moves the country steadily towards a dictatorship, we should each of us be angry, politically active citizens.
I agree that her comments about CKirk are unhelpful, but the fawning response of the White House / Gold Ballroom crowd to his murder had been putrid. He should never have been murdered. That it happened was a horrible thing. So I disagree with her characterization of the event, although I can’t disagree with her characterization of the man. I draw a distinction there.
As far as “boycotting” a business because you don’t like the opinions of the owner, go ahead. Knock yourself out. Her business will not notice your absence because your call to arms had simply roused her supporters. I’m not judging here; you have just as much right to your opinion as she has to hers.
I do think the coffee is too expensive, but the food is great. The ambiance? Ok with me. Whether you like it or not kinda depends on what you expect when you walk in.
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Of course you’d say her hate speech and celebration of violence to the right is ok. You violence are part of the problem
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Gee, Roger, just what part of “He should never have been murdered. That it happened was a horrible thing” is too difficult for you to understand? Just wondering, as your inarticulate rant seems pretty unhinged for a guy who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
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Her comments are “unhelpful” about Kirk? You’re part of the problem you’re in the same pool of hate that promotes violence against the left. You think a guy that dresses as a woman is such. You’re sick and delusional. You’re nothing more than a groomer and you shouldn’t be allowed within 100 yards of children. You’re va sick individual that has a mental illness. Please seek help.
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Wow. You need to get back on your meds, dude. You’re embarrassing yourself. You don’t know me, but that won’t stop you from creating some twisted fantasy because you don’t agree with what I said. Grow up, you small soul.
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Did you know she was disbarred as a lawyer? Or that at one point, her neighbors took her to court because she owned 14 dogs who wouldn’t stop barking. So instead of doing the right thing and re-homing her dogs, she had their vocal chords taken out? This woman is a terrible person, even with politics aside.
Here’s the kicker- all of you on here calling people “snowflakes” are on the wrong side of this. This woman is playing you for a bunch of fools. You know those signs at her tables preaching about how she pays a fair and living wage and that’s why her prices are so high? Check out her job postings. She has ONE dishwasher position (that she doesn’t always have filled) for $20/hr. Other than that, she pays the rest of her employees substandard minimum wage, which is $7.01/hr. Those high prices are so that you, the customer, wind up leaving a big 20% tip to her servers on an astronomical bill, while she pockets a ridiculous margin on food. Nothing is coming out of her pocket. “Oh, but she uses fresh, high quality ingredients!” Yeah- she charges $20 for a pancake made with crisco. Ya’ll are really drinking her cool-aid that much?
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