The 'hostility' the greater public has towards hipsters stems from the disdain hipsters exhibit towards the rest of us.

Cultural snobbery is annoying.

No, no, no...the real reason why there is such a backlash on Hipsters is easy. Its the classic, "I want to be one of them but never will" mentality. So natch, you have to hate on them/us/whatever. Honestly, ive never met a hipster who likes The Decemberists, right? If you hate Hipsters, chances are you are a Decemberists fan. And in my opnion Hipsters dont go to the new hip trendy bars. I mean, thats a Hollywoold thing. Real hipsters dont go west of Vine.

lolz. you hipsters love writing satirical stuff like this. ironic sincerity, i love it. "The fashion was fun, and goofy, and like bandannas in our back pockets, it let us know who each other were. It helped us find each other in a hostile society." solid gold! A++++

Ok- Decemberists commenter... Non-hipsters wouldn't give a crap what kind of music you liked. Thats the thing.. Hipsters have a distinct line of whats 'right' to like and what's 'wrong.'

old

From a socio-economic point of view, it's easy to hate hipsters because they tend to F**k with a neighbourhood once they move in: prices go up, rent goes up, neighbourhood people move out.

From a strictly personal point of view, I think it's just incredibley difficult to like people who are fundamentally all about image and surface appearance. I mean, people who talk about "Hollywood types" all dressing and acting the same have obviously never been to The Little Joy on a Friday night...

It's the same reason people who have been through college already find first-year college students annoying.

As someone who has lived in Echo Park and Silver Lake for over 5 years, I see my fair share of "hipsters" everyday. Yes, there are plenty of people who fit the annoying picture that Elsie has painted here, but there are also many who dress the part (style, music, movies, etc.) and actually are not the elitists that many of us claim they are. Just as often I find people exhibiting their own brand of cultural elitism when they paint all "hipsters" with broad strokes and dismiss them as "superficial", "vapid" and "pretentious" simply because they look like they would be. Truly a case of the pot calling the kettle black if I ever saw one.

I'm sure if most of you saw me on the street you would call me a "hipster." I used to care about that kind of thing, but I gave up trying to be the most unique person in the room a long time ago.

Smokes:

I am definitely not including everyone who lives in a certain part of town or dresses a certain way, as my Yuca and Wacko references attest to.

I am talking about people who dress cool and act cool for the sake of lording their superiority over the less-hip. The people who have no movement, no philosophy, no literature, no art, no politics and no music that drives them. They appear to be driven only by the desire to be cooler than you.

And truly thoughtful, artistic people can't help but be unique. It's not a pose. I'm sure you are still the most unique person in the room.

"I am talking about people who dress cool and act cool for the sake of lording their superiority over the less-hip. "

These people aren't hipsters, they are called a*$holes. Every subcultcha has them. Including goths, rockabilly, salseros, emos, skaters, surfers, portos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, d* ckheads.

In my opinion, if you use hipster as a pejorative you are probably one yourself.

Oh my, the generalizations.

Just because the Ramones or Reaganomics aren't around doesn't mean there's a lack of purity or movement or "good cake." The state of the country today is as infuriating as ever and on the brink of a major crossroads in history. 20 years from now, we could very well be talking about how the new kids could never know what a "real movement" is about because the war in Iraq is over, the Bush's are gone and Bright Eyes has stopped making music. It's just ridiculous to try to compare the generational issues and rank their corresponding populations' sincerity.

Also, you just ASSUME that the kid with the asymmetrical hair at the hip bar doesn't have a belief system or allegiances? As someone who claims to have been part of the Descendents' crowd, you should know better than to fall prey to lumping people together like that.

It seems to me your real issue is with "posers" which is a completely separate issue from the "hipster culture" as you describe it.

I second *both* of the previous comments by debaser and Ross...

There is a snobbery inherent in looking at someone with blue hair or thrift-store clothes and assuming that they are what we are labeling the bad definition of "hipster" (valueless, all-surface, trendy). How do we know that they aren't cool, artsy and unique? If you don't take the time to know someone, can you really tell how original they are just by looking across the room at the Echo?

Having said that, yes, it does come down to the feeling of not being able to trust the outward signs of dress and hair to identify a fellow fan or someone who thinks the way you do. But then again, take a moment and think about how that sounds. It'll start sounding kinda silly and, well, pretty high-school.

For Christ's sake, why not just knock-off the judging and get to know people regardless of whether they dress in your definition of cool or not. That goes for hipsters and hipster-haters.

Well put Damien z and debaser. You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover (unless you're just judging the cover...). I'm sure we all can site examples of both "hipsters" that have admirable characteristics and "non-hipsters" that have condescending attitudes or bad characteristics. It all depends on what is inside, not the style that one dresses as or the haircut that one has.

I mean, really, it would be equally stupid to hate someone just for dressing like a hipster as it would be to trust someone just because he was wearing a suit, right?

EthanAlexander's post #25: Only "lames" hate hipsters. [burn!] I was in a scene or 12 in the 80's [you can't even count them? wow!] yeah [um, I think you're just shouting with joy here]I was a teenage punkrocker as well [as well! when will your accomplishments stop?] Oh and I lived on the eastside in the mid 90's before all you jerks ruined it [I am humbled by your real estate history]

I guess we should all go home now.

I can't go home cause it ain't 5:30 yet, so I just have to add that this is awesome:

"These people aren't hipsters, they are called a*$holes. Every subcultcha has them. Including goths, rockabilly, salseros, emos, skaters, surfers, portos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, d* ckheads."

The real term to me would be "scenester", because someone who adapts a look just to be trendy fits into any of those categories. But how do we know just by looking at someone whether they did that or didn't? Maybe we should just talk to them.

What has gotten people up in arms is that people make being hip the be all and end all. The only point is looking cool. It stops there.

But what if "just looking cool" is part of a greater existential philosophy that acknowledges that dyeing your hair and wearing certain clothes for a "cause" is just as pointless as dyeing your hair and wearing certain clothes for "no good reason at all". And in fact, maybe doing it for no good reason is more respectable than doing it in some vain delusion that doing so will "save the world".

I don't know what you're all on about.

I LOVE assholes.

Hipsters hate making their own marshmallows.

Most of the people who don't understand clearly weren't around when people would call you out in McDonalds for having orange hair and you would have to fight some jock over the fact that you were a punk. It stood for something. We were trying to change society, and part of it was by scaring middle-class America and reflecting the ugliness we saw in the world back at them. Maybe we were idealistic, but such is youth.

Ethan: You say you were in a scene or 12? Really? That simply proves the point that people are jumping from scene to scene with no true allegiance.

Fred: But what if "just looking cool" is part of a greater existential philosophy that acknowledges that dyeing your hair and wearing certain clothes for a "cause" is just as pointless as dyeing your hair and wearing certain clothes for "no good reason at all". And in fact, maybe doing it for no good reason is more respectable than doing it in some vain delusion that doing so will "save the world".

That is probably the truest and most profound argument so far. Now if they would just stop being so smug about it.

EZ Finn: Ok, I take the hint. I'll back out of the debate and go make some marshmallows. I'll stick to restaurant reviews from now on. Or maybe stick to some less controversial subject, like punching nuns and eating babies.