you guys are all doing it wrong:

If you are called a hipster and you deny it, you are a hipster & you love the fact someone pointed it out, but if you agree with them, you are no longer a hipster, so deny, deny, deny

If you go around calling yourslef a hipster or saying "i wear this, or i drink that, i guess that makes me a hipster"...you are not a hipster

the first rule of hipster club is you don't talk about hipster club

Hold on, I'm confused about something.

I feel resigned to the fact that I'm kind of hipster-ish, but I don't really like it. But because I accept that I am a hipster, I no longer am, which means that if somebody calls me a hipster, I should deny it, which would make me a hipster...

My head hurts.

or perhaps that was an intentional showing of clever solidarity

:notamused:

you're almost there.........

Just accept the fact that you are influenced by hipster style, even if it is a subconcious thing.

People hate being called a hipster because the people that are called hipsters think of themselves as fashion forward & unique in their style & appearance. It bothers them to be grouped into a term that really, no matter how much you like it or not, does pretty accurately describe the way you (I) & most anyone else who even bothered to get sucked into this thread feel about it.

So by denying that you are a hipster, you are denying the fact that you are part of a trend & reaffirming your individuality :)

now go be unique & be a trend setter by copying someone else style already!

But I am part of the trend! Or at least partially part of the trend. I own skinny jeans, I ride fixed gear, I ride fixed gear to a coffee shop run by hipsters who ride fixed gear and wear skinny jeans!

The writing is on the wall, man.

I'm with ya man, but.........


shhh, you're losing your cred as we speak.....wait, by talking about this so am I!!!

we've both been outed, damn this elite world of beautiful people!

I'm moving to the mountains

Well I never liked being a hipster anyway. Good riddance.

Very inspirational, but absolutely not helpful at all. Sure, we need to 'change' things...but how? Lets take one small piece of your post, and look at it a little closer. I am a computer programmer for a manufacturing company. Do you have any idea how much things cost? We are rebuilding two (only TWO) plants next year and it will cost over $100 million. You can talk about changing the world, but it costs billions of dollars for a business just to keep putting food on its employee's tables, and you are talking about radical change? I have to admit I used to think the same way you do, but then I graduated college and got a real job (I am only 22, only been out of college since May). In that short amount of time, I have started to realize no matter how great idealism is, you have to be realistic. You are talking about 'changing commerce'? What does that even mean? How much would it cost? Is it even possible, or would that effort push the economy further down the drain? I hate to be the one to tell you this, but as right as you are in theory, nothing you just said has any weight whatsoever. There comes a times to stop spouting idealistic rants and actually do something to make a difference. If all you are doing is saying we need 'change', you are not helping anyone. Slice off your own little piece of this problem and get to work.

//gets off soapbox.

and to keep this from being completely OT,

I like bikes a lot. :D :D

Hardly.

Your reasoned introspection only makes it seem like you are.

First of all, keep your straw man "then I grew up and got a real job" garbage to yourself. You know ZERO about my life, so stop making assumptions.

Let's take one small piece of your post: What does it mean to change commerce? It means to stop exploiting what amounts to a hiccup in the order of things caused by the short-term availability of cheap oil and start doing things in a sustainable way.

We live in a world where it's cheaper to have our goods built and our food grown on the other side of the world by some poor labourer and have it flown over than it is to pay someone a fair wage to do it locally. THIS WILL NOT LAST. It is a freak of economics caused by a finite amount of cheap oil.

A change in commerce means recognizing that we will have to stop doing this eventually, and we'd all be a lot better off thinking up alternatives now rather than when the last drop of oil has been burned and we're all breathing the results.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, but I haven't yet thought of a way to end the world's dependency on oil. I'll let you know if I think of anything.

Solar? Although I personally think geothermal is win. Once the infrastructure is there it will be cheap.

i think it is obvious there is not going to be any one great solution, solar power is great but it would not work as efficiently in some areas that don't get much sun. In those areas wind power might work better, or hydroelectric energy, but then that brings up the point of habitat damage by making dams, or where to put the solar panels or windmills? it is going to be opening a whole can of worms, but it is essential that it is done, soon.

Well, getting the infrastructure set up is the tricky part though, isn't it? That and weaning these big corporations off the teat of cheap oil.

I think this is nicely put. I think hnsq is just trying to point out that the current state of reality is based on a set of rules--a system. It really doesn't make sense, economically, to administer the change you speak of. I agree with this because I personally feel the system is flawed, and the social desires of the people in the system don't care enough to push for a change. I really like your idea of a paradigm shift but I don't think it's practical now because the people in our society don't seem to be willing to make even the smallest sacrifices to make that change.

First of all, if I made unfair assumptions about you, I am sorry. By your writing style I assumed you are not yet out of school. Was this a fair assumption or not? If you are a 40 year old working man, I apologize. If you are a 20 year old college student who hasn't had a job other than clearing tables in restaurants, I do not.

And reading this post, did you say global economics is a freak occurance? A global economy is the future of commerce. The American isolationist philosophy of pre-WWII is gone, and most likely will never come back.

People contradict themselves on these issues a lot. For example, exporting jobs overseas and raising corporate tax rates go hand in hand. (did you know america has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world?) Why grow in America if your company is punished for doing well here?

I think you get my point, and I am getting a little off topic. My main point is people need to stop thinking about 'ending the world's dependance on oil' as you put it. No one person will ever do that. You could, however, raise awareness about biking in your local community and lower your neighborhood's use of oil. My point is to take the energy you are spending complaining about the great problems in the world and channel it into a task you can actually accomplish. Change starts small, at the local level. Sitting around at a diner with friends at 3am talking about the great problems in the world is fun (I have done it more than once), but in my opinion it never actually made a difference.


sorry for blatently going OT on this, but it didn't seem like this thead had anything to do with biking anyway, so IMO it was all a little OT...

Wait are you actually suggesting that if you live in a country you have to agree with 100% of that country's policies and culture (When you say, "People contradict themselves on these issues a lot. For example, exporting jobs overseas and raising corporate tax rates go hand in hand. (did you know america has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world?) Why grow in America if your company is punished for doing well here?")?

I didnt read the thread but that article is spot on. Except for the fact it's written from the perspective of a hipster that doesn't think they're a hipster.

Oh, god... Nothing is real... we're all empty... the scene is soooo fake... we're all poseurs....

You couldn't get a much more hipster perspective than that. So melodramatic and so wistful for a more "real"

How is that article spot on?

The author doesn't even know what a fixed gear is.

Hipsters are the physical incarnation of a song sung wrong (with smug conviction). You want to tell the singer that they're killing it, but they're too stupid to understand.

So you're saying they are equivalent to the singer, not the song ...

Everyone knows best, especially me.

When does a journalist ever get the facts right? just because the details are a little off doesn't mean the spirit of the thing is wrong

What about if I'm a 20-something working a "real job" (No True Scotsman fallacy) in a corporate environment? That doesn't seem fit into either of your assumptions about me (False Dichotomy) so I don't know whether to accept your apology or not.

As for your assertion that I claimed "global economics is a freak occurance" (Straw Man, and oversimplification), you've got it all wrong. I said "We live in a world where it's cheaper to have our goods built and our food grown on the other side of the world by some poor labourer and have it flown over than it is to pay someone a fair wage to do it locally."

Cheap oil makes it not only financially viable, but financially beneficial to exploit cheap labour markets overseas. Will this still be possible when oil is $100 a barrel? How about $1000? How about $10,000? It will get there, it's only a matter of time. The question is not will the current system break down, the question is when will it break down, and will we have a Plan B when it does.

But that purported fact (read: lie) is representative of all the supporting evidence the author puts forth.

All of his supporting evidence is as short sighted. Oh, track athletes ride fixed gears and they don't use brakes. Therefore, EVERYONE who rides a fixed gear should ride brakeless? Nevermind the fact that many track frames are manufactured to accommodate brakes???

And furthermore, if the author actually MET any hipsters, he or she would know that the don't ride with brakes anyhow (!!!).

Srsly, it's just a ******** essay.

Also, as a side point, I hate the style of writing journalists for Vice and Adbusters use. It is SO tacky and SO hipster.