Opinion! How to Live Without Irony

[Gerald]

If irony is the ethos of our age — and it is — then the hipster is our archetype of ironic living.

The hipster haunts every city street and university town. Manifesting a nostalgia for times he never lived himself, this contemporary urban harlequin appropriates outmoded fashions (the mustache, the tiny shorts), mechanisms (fixed-gear bicycles, portable record players) and hobbies (home brewing, playing trombone). He harvests awkwardness and self-consciousness. Before he makes any choice, he has proceeded through several stages of self-scrutiny. The hipster is a scholar of social forms, a student of cool. He studies relentlessly, foraging for what has yet to be found by the mainstream. He is a walking citation; his clothes refer to much more than themselves. He tries to negotiate the age-old problem of individuality, not with concepts, but with material things.

I feel young,

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...without-irony/

Note: November 17, 2012

[soopaman2]

*shoots himself in the head with a .50cal.*

[Stealhead]

I like this basically she is saying if you dislike hipsters you see something of yourself in them.Therefore you should change yourself.

"People may choose to continue hiding behind the ironic mantle, but this choice equals a surrender to commercial and political entities more than happy to act as parents for a self-infantilizing citizenry."
"So rather than scoffing at the hipster;a favorite hobby, especially of hipsters; determine whether the ashes of irony have settled on you as well. It takes little effort to dust them away."

[Red Brow]

But these folks look a great deal like what Chuck portrayed as NERDS. My youngest kid hangs with such a crowd - and at times I mistook their dress as perhaps harking back to what was cool in the early 70s. But then I realized that none of them really were cool, that even some old farts I knew from Texas redneck ville were many times cooler than these kids. The kids here like to refer to themselves as Nerds, but I have not found that any of them would qualify as that back in the 80s or 90s.

Please enlighten me.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Red Brow

But these folks look a great deal like what Chuck portrayed as NERDS. My youngest kid hangs with such a crowd - and at times I mistook their dress as perhaps harking back to what was cool in the early 70s. But then I realized that none of them really were cool, that even some old farts I knew from Texas redneck ville were many times cooler than these kids. The kids here like to refer to themselves as Nerds, but I have not found that any of them would qualify as that back in the 80s or 90s.

Please enlighten me.

Well your kids are hipsters then.


(this part is assuming that you where not attempting sarcasm above you know that a little ,, can go along way soopaman I know his style well enough yours I do not and I'm not the only one)

Did you read the article?

Read the article it should be clear what the meaning is you should not need to be enlightened if you read it.If you did read it read it again because you missed the point.

[Red Brow]

who is a hipster, cause that child insists on being called a Nerd.

[Gerald]

^Then we call ya Red Brow

[Takeda Shingen]

We've got hipsters here on SubSim. I've seen their photos posted. I don't think there's anything wrong with them. Certainly not something I'd shoot myself in the head over.

[mookiemookie]

I made it five paragraphs in before that article put me to sleep.

This lady needs to realize that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Some people gravitate towards a certain fashion trend or what have you simply because. Not because they're trying to make some deep philosophical statement.

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Not if you study semiotics. That stuff is seriously surreal, I'm telling you.

[Egan]

Hipsters. Ah yes. Well, they're all over the place here, with their skinny jeans and 'Where's Waldo' hats. It's when they all started wearing Black Flag and Misfits t-shirts I got annoyed. I mean, some things are just sacred.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by soopaman2

*shoots himself in the head with a .50cal.*

*pries the 50cal from soopas cold, dead hands*
*checks ammo*
*walks to the nearest Starbucks*
"Hey Hipsty, Hipsty! Hey Hipster!" (ironic Platoon movie reference)

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I like this basically she is saying if you dislike hipsters you see something of yourself in them.Therefore you should change yourself.

"People may choose to continue hiding behind the ironic mantle, but this choice equals a surrender to commercial and political entities more than happy to act as parents for a self-infantilizing citizenry."
"So rather than scoffing at the hipster;a favorite hobby, especially of hipsters; determine whether the ashes of irony have settled on you as well. It takes little effort to dust them away."

This sounds more like a problem the author of the article has with herself. If she wants to dust off her irony, that's not my problem. As if Hipsters were the first who used irony or sarcasm. Despite that, her approach and her article are too intellectually constipated to me.
To me Hipsters are the same as Preppies: a bunch of shallow trustafarians who are members of a club to which you gain acces by consumerism. Wear the right clothes, then you're part of the gang.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Penguin

This sounds more like a problem the author of the article has with herself. If she wants to dust off her irony, that's not my problem. As if Hipsters were the first who used irony or sarcasm. Despite that, her approach and her article are too intellectually constipated to me.
To me Hipsters are the same as Preppies: a bunch of shallow trustafarians who are members of a club to which you gain acces by consumerism. Wear the right clothes, then you're part of the gang.

I noticed that which is why I liked the article I thought is was kind of interesting that she really had her own problem but never addresses it.I like articles where the author makes a fool of themselves but fails to realize it.

I always feel that if you are confident in your ways it should not bother you if someone buys into your style so to speak.A true connoisseur has no need to advertise at all.So if it is a guy with a Black Flag shirt unless it is at a 1984 concert I know the guy just wants attention if I see a guy with a NRA sticker on his truck I know that he just wants to seem like a bad ass gun owner he may not even own a single firearm he just got the sticker in the mail x10 for the "I dial .357 not 911" bumper sticker.

At the same to time to mock such a person does not mean that you are laughing at your inner self.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

So if it is a guy with a Black Flag shirt unless it is at a 1984 concert I know the guy just wants attention

HEy! I once was given a ride in the US by some guys with thick glasses who saw me hitchhiking while sporting a BF-shirt!
Glad they were outdoor-nerdrock-guys on their way to a canoe tour and no hipsters. Oh, this happened in 2006.

Originally Posted by Stealhead

At the same to time to mock such a person does not mean that you are laughing at your inner self.

Laughing at your self is never wrong. Laughing at Hipsters, too. Laughing at the author, three. I agree that the author doesn't notice how much the article tells about herself.