Hipsters.

I was asked by somebody to put down my thoughts on hipsters. A good friend of mine jokingly accused me of being one (well he did say pseudo-hipster, but still) due to my being into a good amount of things that are off-the-beaten-path.

\Begin Rant

  Yes, I drive a Right-hand-drive Land Rover. I'm in my VERY late 20's as of writing this and still watch Transformers (the 80's cartoon) on a regular basis. I have a (pathetic) "beard". I wear sneakers to bars. I recycle the things worth recycling. I am a coffee snob. If given the choice I always (try) to steer towards locally run/owned businesses for almost anything. I'm adamant about fixing things myself (or at least trying) even if its cheaper/easier to just have it done. I have a nearly unhealthy obsession with Star Wars and Indiana Jones (which has been becoming mainstream for years yet somehow stays just inside of the line). Craft beer is my religion - i cannot fathom why somebody would EVER want to pay the same price for a Dales's as a PBR. I have an affinity for European culture/languages*/food..... etc etc you get my point.

By no means do I want the above paragraph to be a run-on compliment to myself, nor is all of it traits that could be called hipster(-ish), I was just trying to paint a picture. Instead the crux to my point is that not all people who don't live generically American and have some overlap in interests can be labeled as a hipster. When asked about something I'm into, I do my best to try to share as much as possible about it to a person who looks genuinely interested. There is the core difference.

The irony here (see what I did there?) is that a hipster that blends in, or doesn't spark curiosity from others outside their circle, would be FAR more upset with "conformists"**, and/or ceases to be one entirely.

A hipster does things that knowingly (whether intentional or not) will spark interest in other people, or at least curiosity, yet typically they will scoff at a question. A hipster normally goes hand and hand with scorn, and that is my problem with them. That same good friend of mine responded with "I know some hipsters that are a bit older that are nice". To which I agree, I've met some seemingly hipster-ish people that are nice, that like to share their interests, are happy to talk about a fringe/emerging band/hobby, awesome retro t-shirt to somebody outside their circle. The problem is, at that point they are (likely) FORMER hipsters.

If you don't agree that's fine, I'm ok with that, but why would stereotypes like THIS exist (and without any context an average person automatically knows why its funny) if what is said wasn't at least partially true...

Your pants don't fit, that smell isn't "natural", and there are people who might actually want to know about that band you keep pretending not to mention. Lastly, sometimes when VERY late 20's guys wear a Spider-man T-Shirt, its because he actually likes Spider-man.

Despite this, I really don't hate hipsters as said above we do have some organic common interests, but their attitude does very much annoy me. I do hate poser-hipsters though, but that's for another post.

Now I'm off to a flash artisan market in Brooklyn.

/End Rant

Haha -> http://stuffhipstersdontlike.wordpress.com/

*full disclosure: I can only speak rudimentary Spanish at this point and my German now sucks... but it'll come back (I hope)
**I'm aware that the episode is about the "Goth" kids, but I think that's a term these 2 groups might agree on