Article: Why do People Hate Hipsters

[Sincerely-Dee]

This is getting a bit aggressive no?

However, I wonder how many of the people who've posted here have actually had a bad experience with a hipster(s). I know one who annoys me frequently but underneath the pretence and the front they're actually a nice person.

 

[LizzieMaine]

This is getting a bit aggressive no?

However, I wonder how many of the people who've posted here have actually had a bad experience with a hipster(s). I know one who annoys me frequently but underneath the pretence and the front they're actually a nice person.

I kid about them, but I've had two work for me over the years. One was the biggest pain I've ever had to deal with -- and one of only two kids I've ever had to actually sack. I didn't care about the clothes -- it was the attitude I couldn't handle -- he would not and could not understand that working for someone means doing what you're told to do whether you want to do it or not. I hired him because he seemed clever and creative, but beneath that facade, he was just a snotty little twerp. I gave him over a year to grow up, but as far as I know he still hasn't, and I doubt he ever will. He'll be an irritating coffeehouse punk when he's fifty.

On the other hand, I have a girl who was -- and remains -- one of my favorite staffers. She went off to college last year and came back this summer with a ring thru her nose, weighing about ninety pounds, wearing the skinny pants, the ironic T-shirt, the winter hat in the middle of August, the whole bit. But it didn't bug me, because she understood that when she was on the clock the snarky attitude wasn't allowed. She's as professional and as courteous to the customers as she ever was, and then she punches out and goes out to sit on the sidewalk and smoke cigarettes and scowl. With her, it's just a phase, and I know she'll grow out of it and become a lawyer or something, and probably be very embarassed when people dredge up old pictures.

 

[griffer]

Kids these days!

Hell in a handbasket!

Witness the decline of Western Civilisation!

Back in my day...HEY! GET OFF MY LYNARD SKYNARD!

 

[Edward]

Most of the critiquing I have seen of hipsterdom has been based on the "clinging to youth" part. I am right there in the peak smarminess age for hipsterdom and some of my friends most certainly qualify, and honestly, the weird part is that they act *exactly like they did when we were all 22.* Only we're in our early 30's and late 20's. They're still renting, still in temp jobs, and still single.

I find that rather an odd way of gauging whether an individual is 'mature'.... In this economic climate, those of us who can afford to be owner-occupiers (which is purely a cultural thing, anyhow - in large tracts of mainland Europe very few ever do other than rent, whatever their status) and have permanent employment are fortunate indeed. As to relationship status, well... many of the most mature people I know are single in their thirties, while almost without exception the most immature married young. [huh]

It's pretty weak to make fun of the 'kids' for playing dress up on a board that is all about playing dress up.

But our clothes are cooler than theirs!

 

[Edward]

Kids these days!

Hell in a handbasket!

Witness the decline of Western Civilisation!

Back in my day...HEY! GET OFF MY LYNARD SKYNARD!

lol That's about the size of it.

the winter hat in the middle of August, .

You mean the little wool beany thing? I've taken to referring to those as smurf hats. I like to sidle up to kids I see wearing at them and wax lyrical with faux nostalgia about how I used to wear one of those all the time before I started going bald in my twenties.

 

[JimWagner]

I'm too old to get this whole hipster thing. Never even heard of it before this thread. So I googled some pictures to get an idea of what all the fuss is about. It looks to me like emo meets punk with black plastic frame glasses?

Bad attitudes from youth. Nothing new there.

Yawn.

 

[Undertow]

...I wonder how many of the people who've posted here have actually had a bad experience with a hipster(s).

Interactions with the over-privileged and the arrogantly pseudo-intellectual are typically my worst experiences. I don’t see that on the board so much, but there’s plenty of it in society.

I think one issue I have with society in general is a certain disingenuousness that seems prevalent lately. I guess that's to be expected on some level, but everything from television shows, to movies, to social interactions, to one-on-ones seem to reek of it. Hipsters appear to embody this attitude by definition, but so do other people.

On the other hand, it reminds me of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in which he languidly contemplates a similar prevalence of irony among the masses.

 

[Richard Warren]

The funniest thing in this comes of course from the NYTimes which cautioned against the use of the word "hipster" probably because it doesn't want to insult its few remaining aging readers who like to fancy themselves "hip."

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think one issue I have with society in general is a certain disingenuousness that seems prevalent lately. I guess that's to be expected on some level, but everything from television shows, to movies, to social interactions, to one-on-ones seem to reek of it. Hipsters appear to embody this attitude by definition, but so do other people.

I don't hate hipsters as people, certainly, but if there's one thing I utterly despise about modern culture it's the smirking irony that saturates everything that culture touches. A culture that can't be sincere about *anything* -- mocking the very *idea* of sincerity -- is a culture headed straight down the pipe.

 

[sixsexsix]

Kids these days!

Hell in a handbasket!

Witness the decline of Western Civilisation!

Back in my day...HEY! GET OFF MY LYNARD SKYNARD!

:eusa_clap

 

[Smuterella]

Perhaps hipsters are a worse breed in North America than they are here. I live in the most hipster part of London, probably of the entire UK, Hackney in East London. The hipster song thats going round the internet was written by someone who lives in this area, about this area.

I have to say that while they affront me on an aesthetic level sometimes I'd rather that than the alternative. At least a hipster isn't going to mug me or shout abuse at me like the sweatpants / baggy jeans wearing gangs do. Never trust someone who wears sportswear when not doing sports - thats my motto and I'm sticking to it. ;-) (If anyone has ever had a crime committed against them by a hipster I do apologise and I'd love to hear your story).

I understand Pompidou associating vintage with hipsterism. Both are a deliberate attempt to dress away from the norm, both a deliberate attempt to stand out and draw attention. In London certainly, 40's and 50's hairstyles and Rosie style scarves are a big part of the female hipster look. At least visually, there are similarities.

I'm with most people here in that its the irony that I find most grating. Perhaps thats because a lot of people who like vintage for more than just the aesthetic do it with sincerity. I'm not sure. All I do know is I'm a little in love with Pompidou now.

 

[Fletch]

I find that rather an odd way of gauging whether an individual is 'mature'.... In this economic climate, those of us who can afford to be owner-occupiers (which is purely a cultural thing, anyhow - in large tracts of mainland Europe very few ever do other than rent, whatever their status) and have permanent employment are fortunate indeed. As to relationship status, well... many of the most mature people I know are single in their thirties, while almost without exception the most immature married young. [huh]

I rag on my countrymen a lot, I know, but I really do feel that in the US most of us judge a person's maturity simply by how well s/he fits in. If that means working full-time for the Man and having a mortgage, and SUV, and 2 sprog and a fraction of a third - that's the kind of person we feel is an Adult, Reliable, Responsible, and Living in the Real World.

I'm not advocating that life, mind you. I couldn't hack it. But not living it leaves a lot of your needs unmet in our society.

 

[JimWagner]

I rag on my countrymen a lot, I know, but I really do feel that in the US most of us judge a person's maturity simply by how well s/he fits in. If that means working full-time for the Man and having a mortgage, and SUV, and 2 sprog and a fraction of a third - that's the kind of person we feel is an Adult, Reliable, Responsible, and Living in the Real World.

I'm not advocating that life, mind you. I couldn't hack it. But not living it leaves a lot of your needs unmet in our society.

What interests me about that statement is that I'd think the values of being that kind of "solid" family man would resonate quite strongly with all the "golden agers" here. Only in the details of the possessions would I see any differences and that's only because of what those people would be buying in their respective time periods. What is vintage today was modern then.

 

[Sincerely-Dee]

Perhaps hipsters are a worse breed in North America than they are here. I live in the most hipster part of London, probably of the entire UK, Hackney in East London. The hipster song thats going round the internet was written by someone who lives in this area, about this area.

I have to say that while they affront me on an aesthetic level sometimes I'd rather that than the alternative. At least a hipster isn't going to mug me or shout abuse at me like the sweatpants / baggy jeans wearing gangs do. Never trust someone who wears sportswear when not doing sports - thats my motto and I'm sticking to it. ;-) (If anyone has ever had a crime committed against them by a hipster I do apologise and I'd love to hear your story).

I understand Pompidou associating vintage with hipsterism. Both are a deliberate attempt to dress away from the norm, both a deliberate attempt to stand out and draw attention. In London certainly, 40's and 50's hairstyles and Rosie style scarves are a big part of the female hipster look. At least visually, there are similarities.

I'm with most people here in that its the irony that I find most grating. Perhaps thats because a lot of people who like vintage for more than just the aesthetic do it with sincerity. I'm not sure. All I do know is I'm a little in love with Pompidou now.

Hackney... pretty the hipster centre - as a matter of fact most of East London seems to be!

 

[Richard Warren]

I wonder if you looked if you could find a bunch of anti-geezer blogs, complaining about how geezers do things like buy up all the beach front property, use up too much health care money, have skinny legs and knobby knees yet wear shorts when playing golf, and buy up all the good guitars.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What interests me about that statement is that I'd think the values of being that kind of "solid" family man would resonate quite strongly with all the "golden agers" here.

It certainly resonates with me -- I tend to have very little patience with people who think they're too good to work for a living. It's one thing to want to work and not be able to find work -- it's quite another to think working for a living is for suckers and that it's beneath one to be reduced to it.

Some of this comes from having had a father who was a no-account poolroom loafer who'd rather work angles than punch a clock -- I know what the collateral damage to the family is in such cases. In that sense, my old man was a proto-hipster. No wonder they bug me so.

 

[griffer]

I wonder if you looked if you could find a bunch of anti-geezer blogs, complaining about how geezers do things like buy up all the beach front property, use up too much health care money, have skinny legs and knobby knees yet wear shorts when playing golf, and buy up all the good guitars.

You mean myspace, facebook, friendster????



Or more pointed-headed?

 

[Rick Blaine]

"If you were truly 'doing your own thing', you wouldn't be here with the rest of us, talking about it....."

Akin to anarchists holding a meeting.

Or Libertarians working for the State!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

but the obvious "other side" of such ideas is that by not having a mortgage/SUV/2 sprogs etc, you are not a solid family man. Surely what defines a solid family man is not his material wealth?

What interests me about that statement is that I'd think the values of being that kind of "solid" family man would resonate quite strongly with all the "golden agers" here. Only in the details of the possessions would I see any differences and that's only because of what those people would be buying in their respective time periods. What is vintage today was modern then.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I think some reason why people hate hipsters are pretty self revealing. Haha.

I still agree to Pompidou (+ Edward, Smuterella and Baron Kurtz...) It's not that simple. Looking down on them because they are arrogant or full of themselves? Haha


Oh I am 30 next year and most likly won't buy a house or getting married. Get over it.