Adbusters Hates on Hipsters
A smart friend has been soliciting thoughts on this piece in Adbusters on the cultural vapidity of the hipster genus. Well, I'm about to head to the hipster Mecca of Portland, Ore., so I really don't want to spoil the fun by reading the whole thing. But a quick skim convinces me that the writer never figured out the difference between "cool" and "interesting." There have always been hipsters, cool kids, whatever, who don't put much thought into saying something revolutionary, even though they look the part. Don't romanticize the hippies or the beats or the jazz generation. Plenty of them were boring posers too. If you think I'm overreacting, read the article's kicker:
We are a lost generation, desperately clinging to anything that feels real, but too afraid to become it ourselves. We are a defeated generation, resigned to the hypocrisy of those before us, who once sang songs of rebellion and now sell them back to us. We are the last generation, a culmination of all previous things, destroyed by the vapidity that surrounds us. The hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new.
Grow up! Have a Pabst and flirt with one of those girls in big fake glasses. I bet she tells funny fart jokes.
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11:36 am
Angela, I transcribed the article a couple days before it was published on-line. Adbusters doesn't always put their articles on-line and I enjoyed it enough to spend an hour on it. Anyways, I am glad you posted the link to this article, but by only copying the lead paragraph I don't think you got the full gist of the article. While I believe the author had a somewhat limited scope in his characterization of Hipsterdom by only going out to a couple parties in Vancouver, I think much of his critique was spot on. The best part is that a significant portion of Adbusters readers, who support the ad-free magazine by their donations, could easily be defined as hipsters.
12:40 pm
Having lived in Portland Or for the last four years...prepare to be disappointed. We all look good there but no Portland party or club has ever touched the fun found that can be still be found in LA or NYC.
1:36 pm
From the article:
"While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” - a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society."
This is a huge exercise in circular logic. If you set out to examine the superficialities of people, you're going to inevitably conclude that people are superficial.
He's also falling for the old facile canard that you can define a whole group of people as a "generation".
This guy sound's like a premium douche.
2:49 pm
I agree with Reid, #3. No chance I could have put it better...
2:53 pm
I also associate myself with #3.
(And yes, I'm aware that I am leaving myself open to a plethora of scatological jokes with that statement. But so be it.)
2:57 pm
Youth subculture mirroring the doomed shallowness of mainstream society....
I think some dude named Bret Easton Ellis scooped Adbusters on this. Like, in the 1980s.
3:54 pm
Yesterday I had to remind a kid who claimed that despite all the doom and gloom over the economy that nothing bad is really going to happen, that in fact, the 1966 Watts Riots, 1967 Newark Riots and 1968 Riots were generally about economic problems in only small parts of urban cities and yet people died. He claimed that he was unaware that the riots destroyed property. Seriously. This article is equally ignorant of history and society.
12:22 am
"I think some dude named Bret Easton Ellis scooped Adbusters on this. Like, in the 1980s."
And before that it was Waugh with Vile Bodies, and before that it was some other schoolmarm, and another, and another, going all the way back to Moses himself.