Article: Why do People Hate Hipsters

[Baron Kurtz]

Not a bad article, and points to some hipster hate blogs. Personally I don't much have an opinion on "hipsters". Nathan Barley's are incredibly irritating, but not all hipsters are Nathan Barley's [huh]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/14/hate-hipsters-blogs

[video=youtube;lhAr_UeroCk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhAr_UeroCk&feature=related[/video]

 

[Sincerely-Dee]

Ah yes this article has been passed around Facebook by a self-deemed "hipster" friend of mine. It's quite interesting.
However I must add

Horing also raises an even less-palatable notion: '"If you are concerned enough about the phenomenon to analyse it and discuss it, you are already somewhere on the continuum of hipsterism and are in the process of trying to rid yourself of its 'taint'."

 

[Fletch]

Some of the people on latfh.com don't look so much like hipsters as...unhipsters. Dorksters. Creepsters.
The tattoos, stingys and undersized clothing look is one thing. Deliberately remaking yourself to look dim, reclusive and grotesque is quite another.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Ah yes this article has been passed around Facebook by a self-deemed "hipster" friend of mine. It's quite interesting.
However I must add

He has a point. Not much of a point, I think, but a point. Having an opinion on something doesn't always mean you're in denial … Typically on FLounge opinions on how others dress are quite badly informed of the psychology of motivations, but there are more motivations than simple self hate. Narcissism more common, I would suggest. Hipsters are bad because they don't do what I do, and what I do must be "correct", or "proper" … m'Kay
would be a more common attitude, I would suggest, if people would go to the effort of trying to understand their motives.

I will note for our non British friends, I did try to find a good clip featuring Nathan Barley, but i'm afraid it's really impossible to find one with content suitable for FLounge. He really is (intentionally) a horrid man.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

But that's an essential part of the subculture. It is apparently ironic to make oneself appear to be a "dorkster". That is, if one has no concept of the meaning of the word "ironic".

Some of the people on latfh.com don't look so much like hipsters as...unhipsters. Dorksters. Creepsters.
The tattoos, stingys and undersized clothing look is one thing. Deliberately remaking yourself to look dim, reclusive and grotesque is quite another.

 

[Mid-fogey]

Thing of the moment. Next.

 

[LizzieMaine]

But that's an essential part of the subculture. It is apparently ironic to make oneself appear to be a "dorkster". That is, if one has no concept of the meaning of the word "ironic".

One of my concession kids is going thru a hipster phase, and that's exactly the part of it I can't stand -- lose the smug smirk, kid. You aren't the first generation to realize the ineffable futility of existance and the hollowness of contemporary pop culture, and you won't be the last. So get a haircut and sweep out that corn popper before I show you just how futile existence can be.

 

[Sincerely-Dee]

I don't think this is a thing of the moment. Hipsters have been around for ages in some form or another.
The only negativity I have towards hipsters is their condescending know-it-all attitude. I don't get how ALL of them seem to be like this!
Many hipsters rarely label themselves hipsters until someone else labels them such - it's then that they become unbearable.

 

[Lokar]

That is, if one has no concept of the meaning of the word "ironic".

That's probably the most irritating thing hipsters have done, as far as I'm concerned. They can dress how they want - I think it looks silly, but I'm sure they think I look silly, so it's all good. However, this whole "wearing a t-shirt ironically" business needs to stop. That and the pure abuse of the word literally.

 

[Mr Badger]

You aren't the first generation to realize the ineffable futility of existance and the hollowness of contemporary pop culture, and you won't be the last. So get a haircut and sweep out that corn popper before I show you just how futile existence can be.

There's a fantastic chalkboard behind the bar of the Hi-Tone in Memphis which says "PBR $2. Hipster special: PBR with lime $4", but I think you got it beat!

The real shame about hipsters is that they're like social butterflies, never settling on anything for more than a moment. Needless to say, as one grows up (and out), you go through periods of being interested in different aspects of culture, many connecting backwards, forwards and sideways to/from each other. But hipsters are akin to cartoon beatniks and don't seem to gather any cultural moss as they roll across the landscape...

 

[Son_of_Atropos]

Typically on FLounge opinions on how others dress are quite badly informed of the psychology of motivations, but there are more motivations than simple self hate. Narcissism more common, I would suggest. Hipsters are bad because they don't do what I do, and what I do must be "correct", or "proper" … m'Kay
would be a more common attitude, I would suggest, if people would go to the effort of trying to understand their motives.

So if I understand you correctly, I should take time out of my day to understand why the hipsters dress like they do? Why should I stroke hipster egos even more?

And why should I care when I already know the answer. They are a bunch of arrogant, self-observed pricks. If not then they are cowards who cannot break from the group.

I'm incredulous that someone would care let alone defend hipsters.

 

[Mr Badger]

So if I understand you correctly, I should take time out of my day to understand why the hipsters dress like they do? Why should I stroke hipster egos anymore?

And why should I care when I already know the answer. They are a bunch of arrogant, self-observed pricks. If not then they are cowards who cannot break from the group.

You've got a point! But, then again, we are not defined by our self-conferred outsider status? Balance, as usual, is everyt'ing!

 

[p71towny]

You aren't the first generation to realize the ineffable futility of existance and the hollowness of contemporary pop culture, and you won't be the last. So get a haircut and sweep out that corn popper before I show you just how futile existence can be.

Bwhahahahaaaa!!

 

[MikeBravo]

I want to be a hipster

 

[Son_of_Atropos]

You've got a point! But, then again, we are not defined by our self-conferred outsider status? Balance, as usual, is everyt'ing!

Who is "we"? Would you mind expanding on your comment. If you are talking about loungers, I doubt they even have a status. The ratio is probably 1:500,000.

The hipster genre has been characterized as a bunch of arrogant, self-absorbed jerks. If someone is upset because they are being labeled that way although they dress like a hipster, how about don't dress as a hipster. It is similar to seeing someone wearing a baseball jersey and assuming he is baseball fan. It is absurd to ask that person if he is a baseball fan.

 

[nobodyspecial]

This video is very funny - hipsters discussing cyclocross.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/5684963/

 

[Tomasso]

The University of Nebraska once had a football player named I.M. Hipp.....................



Sorry, that's all I got........

 

[Pompidou]

We're a group of people dedicated to dressing and acting differently than everyone else. If anyone can set the hipsters straight, it's us. We're the same thing. You want smugness, browse the boards. You'll find it. Embrace the hipsters as kindred spirits. They're closer to what we are than any other social group. You can't form a group of people wearing near century old clothes like it's the new trend, believing it superior (again, you'll find this attitude in many threads), trying to be different for its own sake - you can't do this and then look down on that other culture doing the exact same thing. I like what we do here, but we need to understand that we're living in a glass house. We shouldn't throw stones. We don't like their skinny jeans. They don't like suit pants that come up to the belly button. To each their own, I say. I think we're pretty much hipsters - vintage hipsters.

 

[Mr Badger]

I want to be a hipster

Ah, but you mean a real hipster! My wife and I love Shag's artwork...

All this talk of hipsterism is a little disingenuous, to be sure. Having come up largely via a rock'n'roll background, I realised that 'authenticity' in those musics has been bullsh*t since the first 78s started to be sold, so as people in different geographical areas could hear what each other were doing. Fast forward to duh 21st C and the term hipster has turned into a pejorative term, with the same usage as practiced by regular folk back in the 'golden era' to describe their 'wayward' kin and offspring.

If it's used in the John Lee Hooker "This Is Hip" sense (the original recording, not the remake), then I'm a hipster. But if it means either folks who pay no attention to the bigger picture (social, political, ethical, even *gulp* religious) of the culture they're partaking of, or those who define themselves as 'other' when they're actually just being overweeningly snobbish, then I'm summat else entirely...

"Everybody's cool, and everyone's a fool" as James Jewel Osterberg once put it...

 

[Baron Kurtz]

This sums up my thoughts pretty well. we are all trying to present ourselves to the world in certain ways. This is often unconscious, but motivations are always present. All I ask people to do is recognise that those motivations are very similar for the majority of the population, however you dress. You'll notice that all the people featured on the video in post #1 are distinctly sub-Alpha. Not all hipsters are idiots. Again: not all hipsters are Nathan Barleys. Turn them into whipping boys and they will act like it.

We're a group of people dedicated to dressing and acting differently than everyone else. If anyone can set the hipsters straight, it's us. We're the same thing. You want smugness, browse the boards. You'll find it. Embrace the hipsters as kindred spirits. They're closer to what we are than any other social group. You can't form a group of people wearing near century old clothes like it's the new trend, believing it superior (again, you'll find this attitude in many threads), trying to be different for its own sake - you can't do this and then look down on that other culture doing the exact same thing. I like what we do here, but we need to understand that we're living in a glass house. We shouldn't throw stones. We don't like their skinny jeans. They don't like suit pants that come up to the belly button. To each their own, I say. I think we're pretty much hipsters - vintage hipsters.