# 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.


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## 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


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## 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..


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## 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.


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## Kim Chee

janktoaster said:


> 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.


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## 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


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## Kim Chee

Matt Derrick said:


> 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?


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## Traveler

Hipsters are IMO "tryhards".


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## Kim Chee

Traveler said:


> Hipsters are IMO "tryhards".


Is a "tryhard" a Poseur?


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## wizehop

Matt Derrick said:


> 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


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## 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.


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## tobepxt




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## crow jane

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


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## 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.


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## dextol76

tobepxt said:


>




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


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## kerouac

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


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## 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.


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## RnJ

Matt Derrick said:


> 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



Like every other culture ever, I mean? At least, so long as culture existed in human conception -- that is, so long as we were like, hey, there's this thing that begs us to create a word to understand. It's our collective identity.


Thing is culture is as much defined but the common uniquities people have, as well as the individual idiosyncrasies they have. So, hipster is just another way to understand a general trend of tastes and preferences. Sure it varies, is subjective and all, but it is of practical human purpose.

We all steal bits and pieces. Let's get some crude analysis going on here: Punks are so varied, and varied according to who/where they get the values from to which to fill their vision of an anarchic world: punks are really just the following with a cultural twist: homosexuals (gender-punx), wanna be indigenous (anti-civ punx), homeless randoms (gutter-punx), metalheads (crust-punx), faith people (Christianarchists), post-punks (hipster punks), hippies (dirty kids), etc.

Punk is saying something. So are the other descriptions like hipster. There are a ton of hipster types if you think about it: fixed gear hipster (good friends of the bike-punx), the feminist hipster (good friends of gender punx), homeless hipsters (backpackers), doom-rockers and post-metalers (friends of crust-punx, but definitely more hipsterish), post-hipsters (once-cool parents), etc.

Most likely, we are a series layer of multiple cultures and subcultures -- Like an onion. None of us fall right near the tree of a single trunk of a single culture. We're all on a map.

I'll agree that hipster is way more liberal a word, used to describe a way larger range of cultural traits -- that's wierd as in it loses it's meaning, but also perhaps a better thing to identify with if there is more freedom. I think that i I'm being honest, any punks that are trying to be up with the trends in punk, and not failing at it, are a type of hipster. Hipster is a product of globalizing culture (and let's not have to start the conversation about how much America and UK are in most global punk subcultures), but also, as a word, indicate we're prefering to use singular descriptions for a wide cultural array of people.

So hipster means everything and nothing at all -- in theory. Mostly, its a word that self-conscious hipsters use to describe other people (rarely themselves) that they have enough in common with to get really defensive with and try to point out the differences (relatively few, in the eyes of society) they feel they are there.

I am probably a hipster. I call other people hipsters when I'm just trying to remind myself and others that we're up for cultural critique (like anyone else), and that none of us is better than the other, or when people clearly use their cultural "progressiveness" and constant "irony" to say in many words/actions nothing useful at all. I think most of us are hipsters, but also feel there's no point in bringing it up unless people are being self-righteous, "I'm better than the rest of society because of my tastes" people.

And yet, I have no authority to define hipster. It probably one of the more vague words of our time.


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## RnJ

Tude said:


> 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.



You ever tried to ride pants with baggier pants? It's not a good idea. But I guess if shredded up pant legs is what you're going for, then punk points for that, right?


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## drewski

I think that a "hipster", "poseur", whatever is basically saying you are observing someone that you think doesn't really know themselves, or where they fit in this world which is something most people experience at one point or another.

It seems to bother people when they see the progression of someone else's fashion in life go from one trend to the next like a sheep and then base their interests (music, art, literature, etc) off of whatever is cool in that new "scene". It happens all over the place. I don't think it has bothered _me_ per se, but it's something I get a kick out of and laugh about at the person's expense.

What bothers me is that trends effect the quality and comfortability of clothing. Since people are too concerned with looking good over durability and freedom of movement, most clothes are made like shit now. I can't tell you how many times I've needed to just buy a regular ass pair of pants from the store and can't find anything with a loose fit. Everything is based off of this fuckin skinny pants movement. Even "relaxed fit" pants fit tight. No longer are clothes made to last long, or for people that aren't built like the average geezer. They're made to cater to the sheep buying the latest garbage with Bieber blasting in the department store.


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## Odin

Hipster... a word... ....

You know what? Fuck y'all all... Words will never contain me... or restrict the view in my eyes of those I see.

OH... in your level of vernacular...

lol lol hashtag# Hipsters posers... punks.. jocks... what? bitches assholes... people with face moles... dicks and pricks fucking judgmental hicks... every day you meet people up to swanky tricks. Listen up fucks and ducks... in a world of confusion and oblation.. The only life I seek is eye to eye understanding... in a truly free nation.

So fuck you... 

And if your still cool... light me up. ::cigar::


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## Monterey

http://vimeo.com/m/18248164


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## Monterey

I think the cure said it best.


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## Red

Fuckin right Odin! Hipster is just a word. I dont see any reason to catagorize anyone.


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## DesertRat

Red said:


> Fuckin right Odin! Hipster is just a word. *I dont see any reason to catagorize anyone*.



Many people say what I bolded (Not intentionally including you in that). 

I try my damndest to not categorize people; after all, we all are what we are, ya know? I still find myself falling prey to this base instinct on a regular basis.

That said, I believe we as a species have a subconscious need to understand (read as catagorize) everything, and I mean _everything_ we encounter.

It's part of the whole survival thing, ya know?

That which cannot be easily set in a nice little cubby hole is regarded as "freak", or "random", and dismissed by society at large. Hell, even "freak" and "random" are categories!

Personal opinion, I believe the Hipster thing is a trend which will either pass, much like (thankfully) the huge shoulder pads, neon colors, and Parachute Pants of the 80's, or will slightly shift and be called something else, and the term "Hipster" will then become either a joke or an insult, depending on the circumstance/context.

But that's just me.


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## Red

I agree with you on the fact that it is human nature to catagorize. As humans we strive to find familiararity in anything we dont understand. By catagorizing we become fimiliar with something.


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## DesertRat

Red said:


> I agree with you on the fact that it is human nature to catagorize. As humans we strive to find familiararity in anything we dont understand. By catagorizing we become fimiliar with something.




Much agreed, as through familiarity we find out who is friend or foe, what's humorous or non, etc.

It harkens to the mammalian Flight or Fight instinct. Without that, you die.


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## Kim Chee

DesertRat said:


> Much agreed, as through familiarity we find out who is friend or foe, what's humorous or non, etc.
> 
> It harkens to the mammalian Flight or Fight instinct. Without that, you die.



I don't mean to be a party pooper and I agree with some of the points made, but does anybody have anything else to share about hipsters?


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## drewski

mmmmmmmichael said:


> I don't mean to be a party pooper and I agree with some of the points made, but does anybody have anything else to share about hipsters?



Dude you're cracking me the fuck up with this new hipster obsession of yours... you can't get enough can you?


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## DesertRat

drewski said:


> Dude you're cracking me the fuck up with this new hipster obsession of yours... you can't get enough can you?



Mmmmmmichael has it right: I derailed the thread unwittingly, and was lightly chastised for it. 

Thanks for the head slap.

Back to topic: It's most likely that many of the Hipsters seen today are in name only, just like our Oogles. 

Fads change often, and when this one goes, it'll be quiet but abrupt. The silence of its death will be deafening. 

Only then will the scene thin out, and they will no longer be hated, but will be just another subset of society; someone for the niche market to sell overpriced items to.


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## Monterey

Which brings me to my main point. I was a member of gen X. By that I mean generalization x. The media and corporate america wracked their brains out trying to codify us to remove our personal identities and make freaking BANK, yo! Most everybody knew what the fuck was up. If I sublimate my personality to fit into something, the unspoken statement is that I like fitting in more than I like myself. Which, incidentally, is where hipster arrogance comes from. Arrogance is very frequently a mask for insecurity. Anyway, the whole thing of the 90s was that they kept trying to nail us down and get a boxed personality to market to us. Many of us won, sidestepping the grunge bullshit and so forth. Hipsters, however, fucking LOST that war. Really sad. Did they even put up a fight before rolling over?
Some guy basically tells everyone to go to thrift stores and they Obey?! I can get an "Indie" group to tell people to buy a certain brand of soda, and I bet they would do it. New rapper marketed to the college set has new video containing all the "I am the shit" visual cliches telling everyone that bacon is awesome. Pork industry considers it their best investment since people figured out that bacon is toxic shit.

- Monterey


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## Mongo

I feel like this video explains what a lot of cultures do through exclusion and ridicule. hipsters can be especially arrogant and exclusionary just like traincore and oogle travelers just more subtle, or not depending on how inebriated they are. it's the I'm cooler than you because I do this and you don't so you're a loser attitude


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## Monterey

Just when I introduce myself I say I am an oogle. It completely denudes the word of all power after that. It's like the saying: "You never open with your ace card, because then you have nowhere to go". I open by declaring that aces are worth only one. 
Sorry in advance for being kinda hijacky.

- Monterey
Faith, hope, love.


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## East

I'm of the belief that those who grapple onto these stereotypes to live by like a religion haven't found any true meaning for existing. You've got to dig deeper to find purpose than silly marketing terms and transient trends designed to pick pockets. Living by them is a great way to degrade and contain potential, it's an anchor on the core of your person. It's about putting real effort into knowing yourself and others. None of that surface bullshit. Hipsterdom and self indoctrination to it en mass is just a symptom of the shallow, bigoted and quantity over quality culture in which capitalism has directed us. With that said I don't think it's appropriate to ostracize people because of it. Get to know them and make a positive change if the opportunity arises. There's nothing being accomplished by simply scoffing in your own arrogance. People are more than marketing terms and the sooner they realize it the more tolerable sharing earth with them will be.


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## Mongo

East said:


> I'm of the belief that those who grapple onto these stereotypes to live by like a religion haven't found any true meaning for existing. You've got to dig deeper to find purpose than silly marketing terms and transient trends designed to pick pockets. Living by them is a great way to degrade and contain potential, it's an anchor on the core of your person. It's about putting real effort into knowing yourself and others. None of that surface bullshit. Hipsterdom and self indoctrination to it en mass is just a symptom of the shallow, bigoted and quantity over quality culture in which capitalism has directed us. With that said I don't think it's appropriate to ostracize people because of it. Get to know them and make a positive change if the opportunity arises. There's nothing being accomplished by simply scoffing in your own arrogance. People are more than marketing terms and the sooner they realize it the more tolerable sharing earth with them will be.



while i agree with you whole heartedly.

too much for my inebriated mind to handle, Drunk argument in video form!!!


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## Mankini

The key to understanding Hipsters is to understand that their fashion statements minus their privilege negates Hipster status....American Spirits do not automatically grant hipster status...Nor do skinny jeans or an art school degree...But combine them with Bourgeois origins and Behold the Hipster. Essentially a Hipster is nascent, larval stage Bourgeois: nothing more nothing less.


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## Mankini

Without evaluating the Hipster's privilege we cannot truly assign him that title. Without privilege, a Hipster is merely a fashionable young person. American Spirits, fixies, skinny jeanz, vinyl LPs:They don't automatically confer Hipster status: a person can obtain all of these items and not have earned the designator. But marry the above items with a Sarah Lawrence or SCAD degree and what you see before you is a true Hipster. The true Hipster is nascent Bourgeois: a Yuppie larvae soon to morph into a Volvo driving, 2.5 bath butterfly.


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## etpyh

The interesting thing about hipsters is that hipsters do not consider themselfes hipsters, at least that is my impression. So the question what a hipster is depends on what you consider to be a hipster.


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## lone wolf

When you get old like me then none of the lables have any real meaning. Or perhaps its because i dont hang out with anyone that labels have no meaning... Either way, it's all meaningless imo.


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## RnJ

It all comes down to authenticity and DIY ethics. I'd hang out with a DIY hippie, DIY hipster, DIY punk, DIY yuppie anyday rather than a consumerist hippie, consumerist hipster, consumerist punk, conusmerist whatever.
And def. I don't like in hipsters the same thing I don't like in most people hatin' in this thread: hating people based upon a visual category. Self-righteous stylistic assholeness.

YES, there are DIY hipsters who don't hang out at the malls, who don't even like to be called hipsters, and who just want to look good in their own way without buying new things all the time or having to look like a drunk punk or wear tan-shorts and a golf hat. What is your deal with having a hate-box for every human being?


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## CelticWanderer

I constantly get called a hipster cause I wear shitty clothes and listen mostly to old music. I just don't like paying 20 bucks for a pair of jeans at walmart and I don't really like the stuff on the radio. I like art and writing a lot too and i collect Vinyl records so I guess that doesn't help. I dunno what a hipster is, but to me it's the same thing as a scenester, just, someone who goes to shows because its cool to like that band right now or someone who skates because everyone else is doing it or shitty crust punks who bumfuck around town and harasses people and then go back home because its edgy as fuck to be the traveling type or whatever.


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## RnJ

Hear you on that one, CelticWanderer
If anybody else here like to travel hard, but enjoys clothing with colour and not being scarey to children, we should meet, because lately I feel quite alone in my approach to life.


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## Durp

Hippsters are just soon to be Yuppies, but only the most obnoxious form of yuppie. Toattly self absorbed arrogant elietest bastards.


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