Why all the Hipster hatin'?

[Kim Chee]

Do Hipsters really deserve the negative sentiment they have received? My only experience with them (that I can tell) was some kids who were waiting outside of a big box electronics store for the release of a brand new offering of software for their Shitbox 360. I heard them explain to staff that they were "Hipster Kids". Pretty harmless, it seems. It looked like they had quite a bit of patience as they were willing to wait for the release which wasn't supposed to commence for several more hours. They didn't seem to stink, looked clean, weren't making graffitti and seemed to be relatively well behaved in the moment that I saw them. My only other reference has been from mostly negative posts from STP members. (OK, I did look at the Urban Dictionary, but that doesn't count). So, I was hoping to see if there is anybody here that might want to share their personal experience(s) with Hipsters whether that experience was positive or negative.

 

[crow jane]

It's a loose term- people throw that shit around like crazy so there's no real static definition of hipsterdom.

so nice thread, you fucking hipster

 

[janktoaster]

I've found "hipsters" in their mid to late 20s are generally pretty chill- like art, music, good conversations. It's the more recent "hipsters", kids in high school that wear thick rimmed glasses and listening to "indie" music. I dunno, I think it's pretty dumb. I've been called a hipster but only because I like photography, art, reading, travel and music............ I wish I could answer this better but..

 

[MolotovMocktail]

I know a lot of folks who probably fit most peoples' definition of hipster and they're mostly chill people. The hipsters I know who are assholes are assholes not because they're hipsters but just because they're assholes. I feel like there's a lot more hatred of yuppies than hipsters but making stupid generalizations about a label applied upon a ton of people is kind of bullshit.

 

[Kim Chee]

I've been called a hipster but only because I like photography, art, reading, travel and music............ I wish I could answer this better but..

Looks like I've been called a Hipster now as well Thanks, crow jane.

I'm just so happy I'm not a Juggalo.

 

[Matt Derrick]

My problem with hipsters is that as a subculture, they tend to steal bits and pieces of other cultures to make up their culture instead of inventing their own.

As far as I know, they're the only culture that does this, and more often than not simply because what's being taken is "cool".

Some may say that every culture does this, but I would argue that other cultures will generally expand upon something being taken from somewhere else, where hipster culture will take something for what it is (never expanding upon it) and eventually discarding it once it's lost its "cool" factor.

Overall I consider hipsterdom to be a mostly parasitic and pro-consumerist culture, which is why it should be destroyed

 

[Kim Chee]

As far as I know, they're the only culture that does this, and more often than not simply because what's being taken is "cool".
...eventually discarding it once it's lost its "cool" factor.

Coolsters?

 

[Traveler]

Hipsters are IMO "tryhards".

 

[Kim Chee]

Hipsters are IMO "tryhards".

Is a "tryhard" a Poseur?

 

[wizehop]

My problem with hipsters is that as a subculture, they tend to steal bits and pieces of other cultures to make up their culture instead of inventing their own.

As far as I know, they're the only culture that does this, and more often than not simply because what's being taken is "cool".

This...

They are only about style and trends, and will rape a culture for as long as they can steel cool points from it, then move on to the next "style" or trend. In my eyes this makes them as fake as they come.

These are the kids who one moment are NERDS, then the next
PUNKS, then what ever new scene there is that hasn't been (but will soon be) overdone.

Most of them follow trends yet pretend their leaders. Sheep to the fucken slaughter I say. They oooz this need to be cool and you can smell it off them. the whole reason for their existence, is to live for everyone else's opinion of them. Its fucking WEAK!..Empty shells
I have a million times more respect for a "loser" who's true to who they are, over any cool as fake kid who changes his hobbies like the seasons.

Hipster, well, their just FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FUUUCCKKIINN FAKE

 

[Ristoncor]

Hipsters to me are people who, like others have said, take bits and pieces from other cultures but only because they're cool, not because they like them. They're the sort of people who would look down on you for wearing some sort of clothes, but then wear them two years later because now they're cool. People who like certain things only because they're "cool".

I don't necessarily have a problem with a "cosmopolitan" attitude towards life, taking bits and pieces from other cultures, as long as you don't pretend to belong to those cultures and that you would die protecting them. You know, if you say, "I think that *this principle* from *random philosopher* is interesting, but I don't really agree with his other ideas, and I think *this idea* from *this book* is interesting, but I don't really agree with the other ideas" that's fine by me. But don't call yourself a supporter of Ghandi or something just because you read an article about him online and thought he was cool. I don't call myself a "traveler" or a "wanderer" because I've never traveled. Or wandered.

I guess we can all be guilty of this at one point or another when we're overenthusiastic, but I think with most people, that falsity goes away once they become more educated about what they like. I guess it's the fact that "hipsters" just keep liking things that they don't even like just because it's still cool and to say they don't like it would lead them to being judged by their friends.

For example, there's been this big thing with high-school age kids that shopping at thrift stores is cool. And it really fucking annoys me that all the people that would scoff at people who wore anything that wasn't from some big brand are now all singing "Thrift Shop" and bragging about how they got their clothes at Goodwill. Now everyone's saying, "oh, it's not cool to brag about your clothes, blah, blah, blah" (when six months ago they were doing just that) and don't realize that they're doing the same thing (again). Just because you're bragging that your clothes come from a thrift doesn't make bragging about what store you got your clothes from any less stupid. If you only want to wear thrift shop clothes, fine by me. But you should be wearing them because you want to, not so you can talk about it later.

 

[tobepxt]

 

[crow jane]

neo-post-post-modern pastiche, as it were

 

[dextol76]

I remember the first time someone called me a hipster. I was in 10th grade and had never even heard of the word before. I asked them what hipster meant and they replied saying that it was the clothes I was wearing. I looked down at what I was wearing and had beat up black skate shoes, jeans and a brown zip up hoodie with little colorful squares. 10 years later and I am still confused on what "hipster" really is. I feel that it is such a loose term to use for a huge hodgepodge of other things.

 

[dextol76]

I told my friend that I bet her $10 that scenesters will make a come back after all this 90's crap dies out.

 

[West]

I find that when I get rid of categories like "hipster" or "oogle" or "crustlord" I get to see what people are really like and usually I can get along with them or at least get where they're coming from.

I have met a lot of cool, nice hipsters who actually do cool shit and listen to good music and have a lot of fun with it, but my problem is with a large portion of the hipster community for being extremely elitist and "bourgeois", only giving a shit about you if you're dressed up in Urban Outfitters (brand) and listen to Elliot Smith and Fleet Foxes. (Which I do listen to, sorry).

Anyway I guess my point is a lot of hipsters are okay folks and are a little more open-minded than most, tend to be intellectual and artistically inclined, but they can also be condescending elitist asswipes; depends on the folks.

 

[Gonx]

excuse me but its Elliott Smith...not Elliot smith

[only joking]

I think you guys pretty much covered it but I wanted to share my personal observations of Chicago hipsters...as its been pointed out, the term hipster is cast on a huge range of people...I think most of them are actually good folk,
but the horrible ones...
the true hipsters that embody the derogatory connotation
always seem to be the ones that transplanted to the city from some snotty suburb.

They were raised to be arrogant judgmental assholes anyway. The hipster persona they take on is just an external facade to prove how cool, sophisticated and cultured they are now just because theres a taco joint at the end of the block now.

 

[Tude]

Ha. I live in a pretty eclectic neighborhood - all sorts of people mixed in. Just the one comment though on the hipsters. They should not ride a bicycle with those skinny ass pants on. I'v seen more hipster crack than I ever wanted too.

 

[kerouac]

what is a hipster? can you label somebody a hipster based solely on the clothes they are wearing? or what?

 

[spoorprint]

People who call themselves Anarchist because they read Chomsky (or know who he is) but always vote for Democrats.

Beer snobs.
Gallery Owners.
Last week I saw some jeans on sale at Penny's. "Skinny cut and low cut so maybe not the most practical for work, but made out of heavy duck cotton like Carhartts.
as if they might work or travel. Mixed message. Very self conscious.