Why!!!! Hipsters!!! Why!!!!!

[AtomicEraTom]

They probably think displaying antiques is too mainstream

Ok, I thought you were tasting the collection there.

Obviously you don't have enough hipsters over. They would flock to that collection like mecca. They would be interested.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Ok, I thought you were tasting the collection there.

Obviously you don't have enough hipsters over. They would flock to that collection like mecca. They would be interested.

All the hipsters moved to Brooklyn, their "promised land." Like yah, next year in Billyburg.

 

[jamespowers]

They probably think displaying antiques is too mainstream

But displaying PBR as an antique would be ironic enough for them.

 

[jamespowers]

All the hipsters moved to Brooklyn, their "promised land." Like yah, next year in Billyburg.

Now if I could get all the hippies to move to Brooklyn then I would be happy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Apropos the earlier discussion of higher education in this thread:


The American Scholar: Disadvantages Of An Elite Education.

From the essay:

It didn’t dawn on me that there might be a few holes in my education until I was about 35. I’d just bought a house, the pipes needed fixing, and the plumber was standing in my kitchen. There he was, a short, beefy guy with a goatee and a Red Sox cap and a thick Boston accent, and I suddenly learned that I didn’t have the slightest idea what to say to someone like him. So alien was his experience to me, so unguessable his values, so mysterious his very language, that I couldn’t succeed in engaging him in a few minutes of small talk before he got down to work. Fourteen years of higher education and a handful of Ivy League degrees, and there I was, stiff and stupid, struck dumb by my own dumbness. “Ivy retardation,” a friend of mine calls this. I could carry on conversations with people from other countries, in other languages, but I couldn’t talk to the man who was standing in my own house.

...The first disadvantage of an elite education, as I learned in my kitchen that day, is that it makes you incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you. Elite schools pride themselves on their diversity, but that diversity is almost entirely a matter of ethnicity and race. With respect to class, these schools are largely—indeed increasingly—homogeneous. Visit any elite campus in our great nation and you can thrill to the heartwarming spectacle of the children of white businesspeople and professionals studying and playing alongside the children of black, Asian, and Latino businesspeople and professionals. At the same time, because these schools tend to cultivate liberal attitudes, they leave their students in the paradoxical position of wanting to advocate on behalf of the working class while being unable to hold a simple conversation with anyone in it.

I run into this every day of my life up here -- well-meaning people, certainly, like many of the "hipster" crowd, but without the slightest notion of what "diversity" actually means beyond their own narrow world, people who complain endlessly that we aren't "diverse" enough around here to suit them, but who are incapable of recognizing the true diversity under their turned-up noses.

 

[ButteMT61]

"Diversity" in the university definition of such is bunk. At UCLA, for example, there were (are) of course people from all over the world. They always tout(ed) this as a point of pride. Well, all one needed to do was go to lunch, or one of the local hangouts/study areas to see how diversity works. It's lots of people from different countries, races, cultures, all bundled up together, separated from others who are different. The Chinese chemistry students here. The German engineers over there. The African American biology club in that corner. Bah humbug. Nobody mixed up much, except maybe at the frat's. But even those were pretty much divided. It's cool to talk diversity, it's another to actually interact with others. It's surely an opportunity, but often neglected. Of course this wasn't true of the entire university, but it was something that we talked about being pretty obvious...

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Pabst Blue Ribbon started out as Phillip Best Brewing Co's Select in the 1880's and had a silk blue ribbon affixed to the neck. The name was changed to Pabst Select when Frederick Pabst changed the company name in 1889. People frequently asked for the 'Blue Ribbon Beer' and after they won the blue ribbon at the 1893 World's Fair, they changed the name to Pabst Blue Ribbon. I would suppose it truly is an antique, the name is well over 100 years old.

But displaying PBR as an antique would be ironic enough for them.

 

[Flicka]

Apropos the earlier discussion of higher education in this thread:


The American Scholar: Disadvantages Of An Elite Education.

From the essay:



I run into this every day of my life up here -- well-meaning people, certainly, like many of the "hipster" crowd, but without the slightest notion of what "diversity" actually means beyond their own narrow world, people who complain endlessly that we aren't "diverse" enough around here to suit them, but who are incapable of recognizing the true diversity under their turned-up noses.

I live in the one neighbourhood that is most integrated (ie mixed) in terms of income, education and ethnicity in Sweden and I wouldn't have it any other way. I cannot count the number of times people have gotten "that look" when I mention where I live or asked me why I don't move "somewhere nice." It IS nice here - we don't lock our doors and you never feel scared or threatened and everybody knows your name. There's absolutely no stuck-upped-ness here whatsoever. Extremely laid back just like it was when I grew up. Not to mention there are great green areas, a lake you can swim in and 19th century still-functioning stables, but hey, what does that matter when you might run into someone who actually works with their hands or - horrid thought! - someone with a dark complexion?

Sorry, but it's one of my sore points, segregation.

 

[casechopper]

I have no experience with UCLA but in my univeristy experience there was plenty of intermixing between races. Other than the Indians vs. Pakistanis there weren't any real race issues. Many groups formed because of similar backgrounds (i.e. the Indian students or the Nigerian students) but there was plenty of intermixing and understanding between the groups. Those that didn't mix were those that didn't wish to. Most people mixed because if you didn't you limited yourself to very few connections within a classroom. My school is the 7th most diverse school in the USA so we definitely had a lot of diversity.

As to class, we had students coming in from all kinds of different backgrounds. I come from a family that did property management up until I was 15 so I worked alongside plumbers, electricians and general maintenance workers daily. Other kids came from immigrant families where the parents do not speak any English and worked in manual labor. Being a state school probably helped to make it more accessible to less well to do students. I did run into some clueless types who had never done any physical labor in their lives and didn't understand people who did. They were about as common as the proud working class types who thought anyone who used big words and dressed nicely was a snob. Neither of these two groups got along and neither group really got along great with the majority of us in the middle either.

In my university experience my close friends (that I can think up in this minute) divided along ethnic lines would be
Nigerian: 3
Togo: 1
Polish: 2
Irish: 1
Indian: 4
Pakistani: 1
Colombian: 3
American like me (white and enough generations down not to be directly identifiable to a single origin country): 3

I enjoyed the diversity as it gave me a chance to know people with very different views on the world from my own.
Sam

"Diversity" in the university definition of such is bunk. At UCLA, for example, there were (are) of course people from all over the world. They always tout(ed) this as a point of pride. Well, all one needed to do was go to lunch, or one of the local hangouts/study areas to see how diversity works. It's lots of people from different countries, races, cultures, all bundled up together, separated from others who are different. The Chinese chemistry students here. The German engineers over there. The African American biology club in that corner. Bah humbug. Nobody mixed up much, except maybe at the frat's. But even those were pretty much divided. It's cool to talk diversity, it's another to actually interact with others. It's surely an opportunity, but often neglected. Of course this wasn't true of the entire university, but it was something that we talked about being pretty obvious...

 

[ButteMT61]

I have no experience with UCLA but in my univeristy experience there was plenty of intermixing between races...I enjoyed the diversity as it gave me a chance to know people with very different views on the world from my own. Sam

We had a lot of that in our departments. It just appeared the student body was not so much into the mixing. Now, remember, Troy Aikman was the quarterback, so hopefully it's better now. There were some faculty that didn't feel technical staff were on the same level as them. But they also needed us so it was usually a good relationship where they tolerated us. Of course, once they were intoxicated, they were a lot better lol

 

[jamespowers]

Pabst Blue Ribbon started out as Phillip Best Brewing Co's Select in the 1880's and had a silk blue ribbon affixed to the neck. The name was changed to Pabst Select when Frederick Pabst changed the company name in 1889. People frequently asked for the 'Blue Ribbon Beer' and after they won the blue ribbon at the 1893 World's Fair, they changed the name to Pabst Blue Ribbon. I would suppose it truly is an antique, the name is well over 100 years old.

Wow. How the mighty have fallen to the hipsters.

 

[jamespowers]

Apropos the earlier discussion of higher education in this thread:


The American Scholar: Disadvantages Of An Elite Education.

From the essay:



I run into this every day of my life up here -- well-meaning people, certainly, like many of the "hipster" crowd, but without the slightest notion of what "diversity" actually means beyond their own narrow world, people who complain endlessly that we aren't "diverse" enough around here to suit them, but who are incapable of recognizing the true diversity under their turned-up noses.

I love how they try to speak more slowly to you as if you are speaking a different language. :rofl:
"Oh my goodness! What a brute! He works with his hands!" :rofl:
The funny thing is that the plumber is making more than they are. :rofl:

 

[sheeplady]

Apropos the earlier discussion of higher education in this thread:


The American Scholar: Disadvantages Of An Elite Education.

But I think part of his experience is due to what I call the homogenizing effect of universities as well. It's one of the unique things about universities that cater to the upper middle class that I have seen time and time again. My undergraduate university was extremely class diverse (I had friends who grew up "in the projects" and who lived in tar paper shacks and I had friends who owned a Benz); however, to the unobservant outsider no one would have known any different than everyone being at least middle class. There is incredible pressure on non-middle class students (low income and working class) in these environments to change their actions to blend in, everything from how they dress and act to how they talk. (Many people have two tongues in which we speak- one of which is how we learned to talk at home and how we learned to talk in school or university.)

Additionally, I have noticed that among upper middle class students the assumption that everyone is *like them* even if they are not. Likely the gentleman who wrote this did have classmates who lived in public housing, but he likely assumed that they too had a really nice house in the suburbs. I've seen this in my teaching when a middle class student says to a low income student: "Why don't you just move home after school?" and the low-income kid says "No, I grew up in public housing, I can't go back there." and the middle class student is shocked that their acquaintance that they have known for four years came from an impoverished background. I once had an argument with an instructor (he himself from a highly educated upper middle class family) who argued that his students were all upper middle class individuals, when I knew for a fact that several of his students came from poor backgrounds.

When you put these two things together: pressure to be middle class (or appear that way) and an assumption that everyone is middle class, it becomes a feedback cycle: the assumption is further pressure to "act" and "pass" as middle class, and the "passing" as middle class reinforces the assumption.

I bet it is far more likely that he interacted with people of a diversity of class backgrounds throughout his life but merely was only threatened by the interaction when he actually knew their class and couldn't assume otherwise. Otherwise he must be a pretty dull customer if he's never chatted with a cashier, barber, custodian, bank clerk, mechanic, dental assistant, random person at an elevator in a public building, etc.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's the definition of diversity that bothers me the most. "I wish we had more diversity here," they'll say, "everyone's so 'white.'" Really? Is that upper-middle-class Ivy League white, is that sardine-cannery white, is that lobsterman white, is that clamdigger white, is that Protestant white, is that Catholic white, is that Franco-American white, is that Quebecois white, is that shanty-Irish white, is that lace-curtain-Irish white, is that Italian white, is that German white, is that Finnish white, is that Nova Scotian/New Brunswick white, is that Jewish white, all of which are well represented in this "white bread" state I live in. As long as you're defining diversity exclusively by census-form racial designations, you don't know what diversity is at all.

 

[ButteMT61]

It's the definition of diversity that bothers me the most. "I wish we had more diversity here," they'll say, "everyone's so 'white.'" Really? Is that upper-middle-class Ivy League white, is that sardine-cannery white, is that lobsterman white, is that clamdigger white, is that Protestant white, is that Catholic white, is that Franco-American white, is that Quebecois white, is that shanty-Irish white, is that lace-curtain-Irish white, is that Italian white, is that German white, is that Finnish white, is that Nova Scotian/New Brunswick white, is that Jewish white, all of which are well represented in this "white bread" state I live in. As long as you're defining diversity exclusively by census-form racial designations, you don't know what diversity is at all.

Nobody cares. It's not politically expedient to care. You're white, and white is white. Yeah, it sucks. That's the PC world we have today. Nevermind that it's as bad as the behavior they pretend to despise...

 

[Big Bertie]

I live in the one neighbourhood that is most integrated (ie mixed) in terms of income, education and ethnicity in Sweden and I wouldn't have it any other way. I cannot count the number of times people have gotten "that look" when I mention where I live or asked me why I don't move "somewhere nice." It IS nice here - we don't lock our doors and you never feel scared or threatened and everybody knows your name. There's absolutely no stuck-upped-ness here whatsoever. Extremely laid back just like it was when I grew up. Not to mention there are great green areas, a lake you can swim in and 19th century still-functioning stables, but hey, what does that matter when you might run into someone who actually works with their hands or - horrid thought! - someone with a dark complexion?

Sorry, but it's one of my sore points, segregation.

Overlooking the interesting discussion of prejudice and segregation, which happens in my country also, I'm afraid I was more interested in your mention of 19th C functioning stables. Do these belong to individual houses (i.e. coach houses as we have) or are they communal in some way? In what way still used? I have a coach house with stabling but sadly no longer still functioning.

 

[ButteMT61]

To be fair here - there's plenty of folks who are in the trades that look down on the "educated folks" as well. They see them (sometimes rightly) as snobbish and elite. There's always some truth to both sides of the story.

 

[Flicka]

Overlooking the interesting discussion of prejudice and segregation, which happens in my country also, I'm afraid I was more interested in your mention of 19th C functioning stables. Do these belong to individual houses (i.e. coach houses as we have) or are they communal in some way? In what way still used? I have a coach house with stabling but sadly no longer still functioning.

There's an old manor here (some of the buildings are 18th century and some are 19th century - it's a well-known fact that our one regicide in Sweden was planned in one of the older buildings in 1792) and the stables used to belong to that. Now they belong to a riding club and host both the club's and privately owned horses. They've been expanded with paddocks and an indoor riding court. They're currently being renovated but the exterior is 100% original. I rode there when I grew up and I like the fact that I can still see kids all ages hand around there for lessons.

 

[Big Bertie]

Thank you.

 

[Edward]

To be fair here - there's plenty of folks who are in the trades that look down on the "educated folks" as well. They see them (sometimes rightly) as snobbish and elite. There's always some truth to both sides of the story.

I actually have encountered far more of this in my time than the more obvious prejudice. It does, of course, cut both ways. Among the academic set if there is any prejudice it is most likely to stem from ignorance through lack of experience of a world in which people have fewer opportunities. Equally unacceptable, of course, but I'm always somewhat shocked at the sheer level of bitterness and contempt some have for organised education at the third level, as opposed to for some of those (who may be deserving targets) who happen to have been educated to that level. Similar thing to reverse snobbery in a socio-economic class sense more broadly.