Hipster: The dead end of Western civilization

If the vapidity of Vice Magazine has ever made you uncomfortable but you're not quite sure why,  this article is for you.*

* Yes, I realize by posting this link I risk joining the ranks of the "chubby bloggers who aren't getting laid anymore and are bored" derided by Vice's charming co-founder Gavin McInnes in the article. How ironic.

Comments

[DMFB]

It's awfully rich for Adbusters to be criticizing anyone for "seek[ing] to escape their own wealth and privilege by immersing themselves in the aesthetic of the working class" or aesthetic vacuity; their demographic is a bunch of pissed-off trust-funders with salon dreads wearing Che Guevara t-shirts and buying Black Spot gear to damn capitalism.

Hippie pot, meet hipster kettle.

[ch]

Adbusters' "demographic" aside, I think there's some valid criticisms in that article. At least Adbusters - unlike hipster bible Vice Magazine - isn't glorifying misogynist/pornographic, conservative and (many would say) racist values. I'm glad to see anyone finally call out Vice and its legion of devoted fans for that - even if the finger-pointer is on a somewhat precarious base of its own.

[mj]

Pfffft. Real hipsters don't ride fixie bikes anymore. Fix-push is THE FUTURE, and if you didn't know that, you are clearly below me in the hipness hierarchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2885aR6o6s
(sorry, embedding the video did not work in preview so I just posted link)

[DMFB]

I think there's some valid criticisms in that article.

I'm certainly not here to defend hipsters, but I think it's misguided to call them a counter-cultural movement, as the article seems to imply. It's pretty much all about drinking, clothes and fucking, but it doesn't pretend to be about anything else; it's more akin to disco than hippies.

And as for Vice, I'd be more inclined to get my back up about them if I didn't think that most of what they did was done solely to get a rise out of people. They're smart ass teenagers poking at social mores; Marilyn Manson for a different set of socio-cultural beliefs.

[ch]

I did think calling it a counter-cultural movement was a bit of a stretch, if only because narcissism seems to be the primary activity of the group (at least collectively).

I think the whole 'it's irony!' or as you say, 'poking at social mores' explanation is the biggest excuse ever. How is replicating the degrading images of women's bodies or racist stereotypes already found widespread throughout mainstream culture - pushing 'social mores'? Wouldn't that imply that sexism and racism aren't already rampant in our culture?

How is assessing pictures of random strangers (Dos and Don'ts) according to their physical appearance/whether one of the editors would like to have sex with them/or their level of intoxicatedness any different from the pursuits of voyeuristic celebrity magazines? Vice isn't doing anything innovative, it's just replicating old practices on a new target, i.e. young people that aspire to hip-ness rather than Hollywood stardom.

Anyway, to distill this all into one main point: I think it's awfully convenient that the primary method of 'pushing the boundaries' at Vice Magazine consistently contributes to furthering the privilege already enjoyed by Gavin McInnes, Terry Richardson and the rest of their ilk.

[DMFB]

Entirely fair points. I guess what I meant was (to distill it into one main point): I think Vice is stupid, not offensive.