Americans So Over Hipsters
Just 16% of Americans have a favorable opinion of hipsters, a new PPP poll on the much-discussed subculture shows. 42% have an unfavorable opinion of hipsters, and 43% aren’t sure. Democrats (18% favorable, 34% unfav) are twice as likely as Republicans (9% fav, 48% unfav) to have a favorable opinion. Voters age 18-29 have a favorable opinion of them (43% fav-29% unfav), but very few voters over age 65 do (6% fav -37% unfav).
Just 10% of voters say they consider themselves to be hipsters – and almost all of those are younger voters. Half of all voters aged 18-29 consider themselves hipsters; every other age group is 5% or less.
14% of voters say they’d be more likely to vote for a hipster for political office – mostly independent voters. 12% of Democrats and 27% of independent voters say they’d be more likely to vote for a hipster, but just 2% of Republicans agreed. 98% of Republicans say they’d be less likely to vote for a hipster.
We asked voters whether they thought hipsters made a positive cultural contribution to society or whether they just “soullessly appropriate cultural tropes from the past for their own ironic amusement.” 23% of voters said they made positive cultural contributions while nearly half – 46% – went with soulless cultural appropriation. Independents at 31% were most likely to say hipsters make a positive cultural contribution, while Republicans were least likely (15%) with Democrats in the middle (23%).
27% of voters said they thought hipsters should be subjected to a special tax for being so annoying, while 73% did not think so.
About one in five voters (21%) said they thought Pabst Blue Ribbon, commonly associated with hipsters, was a good beer. Democrats (29%) were more likely than Republicans (23%) to think so, while independents (11%) were least likely.
