What is a hipster?

[Gori the Grey]

But, I'm sorry, I think you've convinced me that I ought to go into one. Just to prove how nonconformist I am: by not conforming to nonconformity. (Or perhaps I've missed out a step, here.)

I suspect, but cannot prove, that there are people who ironically patronize Starbucks as a way of manifesting their superiority over those who disparage Starbuck hipsters. It just seems like such a species of hipster must exist, even it it has not yet been observed in the wild

Spoiler :

of Starbucks.

 

[Borachio]

What I know about football is surely not nothing. I used to "play" the game when I was at school. (Frankly, I was crap.) And I have heard of teams like Manchester United and Arsenal.

I'm not what one would call knowledgeable, though.

But can I resist a quiz? No, I can't.

Nope. YOU'RE NO FOOTBALL HIPSTER! You like goals, goals, goals, pronounce Milan as Milan rather than Mee-lan, and quite frankly you're not really sure you'd recognise a false nine if one came up and shook you by the hand. You've got some work to do. Start off with a video of the 1991 European Cup final between Red Star Belgrade and Marseille and work from there.

I actually genuinely answered 3 questions, I think. The rest were random guesses based on selecting the first item in the list. (Number 1 is as close to random as makes no difference in my opinion. Especially for quizes. So there you go.)

A false nine is something to do with golf, would be my best guess. Amirite? I think I probably am.

Spoiler :

What I really like about Starbucks is the name. Totally unironically.

 

[dutchfire]

Well, find out whether you're a hipster or not.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/quiz/2013/oct/29/are-you-a-football-hipster

Was doing the quiz, read this:

Groesbeek in Holland – RKSV Achilles 29 are at home and you've been waiting for the chance to see how François Gesthuizen's coaching methods have affected the De Witzwarten's Dutch fourth division relegation fight

1. Groesbeek is not in Holland
2. They're playing first division!

Got 42/60

Close but no cigar – YOU'RE A BIT OF A HIPSTER! You love a bit of tactical talk and wear your 1991-92 St Pauli away shirt with pride, but deep down there's part of you who prefers a cavorting mess of a 4-3 to a well-disciplined 0-0. You heathen, you. Still, you're well on your way to zen-like hipsterdom

Sadly, my St Pauli shirt is more recent

--
Yes, I'm afraid I'm a bit of football hipster.

 

[Mise]

40 out of a possible 60

Close but no cigar – YOU'RE A BIT OF A HIPSTER! You love a bit of tactical talk and wear your 1991-92 St Pauli away shirt with pride, but deep down there's part of you who prefers a cavorting mess of a 4-3 to a well-disciplined 0-0. You heathen, you. Still, you're well on your way to zen-like hipsterdom

I have a Boca shirt, I don't know if that gives me points. It's the only football shirt I own.

 

[gay_Aleks]

when I heard the word "football hipster" I think a part of me died.

 

[Narz]

I think the essence of hipster is disingenousness & an obsession with how one appears to others.

 

[Takhisis]

But can I resist a quiz? No, I can't.

Good man!

1. Groesbeek is not in Holland

it certainly is in the Low Countries. In Belgium, perhaps?

I have a Boca shirt, I don't know if that gives me points. It's the only football shirt I own.

That would mean you have no football taste at all and that you think Stoke's football is too pretty.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Wouldn't an actual 'football hipster' have something closer to a Socrates shirt? (i mean the brazilian player of bygone times).

 

[Borachio]

Football!

It's mostly a game of chance, isn't it?

Btw, Brazil are favourites to win. And the pundits predict a Brazil Argentina final.

(England is predicted to have a totally lack lustre world cup experience, and may not even get to fail in a penalty shoot out.)

 

[Farm Boy]

but deep down there's part of you who prefers a cavorting mess of a 4-3 to a well-disciplined 0-0. You heathen, you.

Baseball looks more exciting by the minute!

 

[Borachio]

Oh yeah. That's like rounders, isn't it?

So a bastardized version of cricket, where people chuck the ball, and run round in circles having dropped their bats. Yup. I know the game.

 

[Farm Boy]

Pretty much!

 

[Takhisis]

Football!

It's mostly a game of chance, isn't it?

Btw, Brazil are favourites to win. And the pundits predict a Brazil Argentina final.

(England is predicted to have a totally lack lustre world cup experience, and may not even get to fail in a penalty shoot out.)

Look up Stephen hawking's comments about it in yesterday's Guardian issue.

 

[Borachio]

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/may/28/stephen-hawking-formulae-england-world-cup-success

I think he's looking better, old Hawking.

 

[dutchfire]

it certainly is in the Low Countries. In Belgium, perhaps?

This evening, one of my friends suggested we visit a match by Groesbeek next season. True story.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Spoiler :

Jolly provided the key that brought my various thoughts together. I give you, in my best imitation of Baconian style . . .

On Hipsters

No man is a hipster—in his own estimation. The epithet is a term of disapprobation only, not self-definition. The word “hipster” cannot be defined; but the system that produces the epithet can be described. "Hipster" is one element in a larger system of mutual disparagement. The primary elements of the system of hipsterism are nonconformity and smug, scoffing judgment. The person labeled by others a hipster regards himself as a nonconformist, an independent thinker; he is not “mainstream” and assumes an air of smug superiority toward the mainstream. The archetypal hipster wore flannel precisely because it was not in fashion, rode a bicycle as an implicit criticism of American overconsumption of fossil fuels, and demonstrated his superior sensibilities by being willing to overpay for coffee.

Hipsterism emerged and has developed in a symbiotic but complex relationship with the Starbucks coffee chain. In the early years of Starbucks’ operation, the start-up coffeeshop franchise was seen, by comparison with established fast-food chains, as being out of the mainstream. Taking a coffee there served as a sign of one’s nonconformity. The chain encouraged this association, and has tried desperately to continue to project a vibe of nonconformity even as it has itself grown into a massively popular (hence mainstream) global chain. The key to its association with nonconformity is precisely the overpricing of their coffee. It represents a specialized form consumerism, akin to what has been called “conspicuous consumption”; the high price serves as a guarantor that this is not ordinary--that is to say, not mainstream--coffee. It is not that the coffee is in fact superior to mainstream coffee and therefore carries a higher price; rather, its carrying a higher price is the evidence that it is superior to ordinary coffee. One pays the extra money precisely for the higher price—and the satisfaction of being out of the mainstream that derives therefrom.

The nonconformism centered around Starbucks generated hipsterism. The pretentiousness of the nonconformist crowd elicited a backlash that took the form of their being disparaged as hipsters. At the same time, and with the growth of the Starbucks chain, this particular form of nonconformity became a type, and hence its own kind of mainstream. The true nonconformist would now have to (scoffingly) differentiate himself not only from philistine American culture at large, but also from the inauthentic nonconformism of the “Starbucks hipster,” which he does by wearing something even more out of fashion than flannel, and by taking his coffee at an non-franchised coffee shop. That person may in turn be mocked by someone yet more authentically indy, in infinite regress.

One is, oneself, of course always just an independent thinker, a nonconformist. The person who mocks you is a pretentious hipster; the person you deservedly mock for thinking he is nonconformist when he is in fact mainstream is a “Starbucks hipster.”

Just wanted to say that this was a fun read

 

[Labtec600]

A Dbag with terrible taste in music, fashion, and political views.


I understand the teenager/college student that becomes a hipster, but I do not understand grown adults being a hipster.

 

[JollyRoger]

A Dbag with terrible taste in music, fashion, and political views.


I understand the teenager/college student that becomes a hipster, but I do not understand grown adults being a hipster.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Just wanted to say that this was a fun read

Thanks, Terx. This was the most fun thread for me in a while. TF intended it as a break from all the brutal threads we've had lately and that is how it worked for me
I had an inchoate notion of how hipster functioned as an insult. Some of the cartoons helped me sharpen that
Trying various phrasings sharpened it. JR gave an important clue. Then my thinking on the subject gelled. It was not only fun in its own right. It stands for me as a model of how threads here work best. Help you gradually refine your thinking. But maybe only on non-hot- button issues.

 

[Traitorfish]

A Dbag with terrible taste in music, fashion, and political views.

Well, that isn't really a definition. It's barely a description, given that it's a coherent response to any variation on "What is a [subculture]?"; hippies, indie kids, anybody you don't like, basically. I'm not really interested in whether people like or dislike hipsters, or even why they dislike hipsters, but what the hipster actually is, the nature of the object around which we're forming these opinions.