September 19, 2013

"Without the sign, without the context, I definitely look like someone who is a bit insane."

"That’s how I thought of it, before I clicked to look at the hundreds of replies; I figured people were probably wondering why I would bring my typewriter to a park."

And when I started reading the comments, I saw most people had already decided that I would bring my typewriter to the park because I'm a “fucking hipster.” Someone with the user handle “S2011” summed up the thoughts of the hive mind in 7 words: “Get the fuck out of my city.”...

There were hundreds more. A few people were my staunch defenders, asking the more trenchant commenters why they cared so much. Others started to wax nostalgic about their own typewriters. But the overwhelming negativity towards me, and the “hipster scum” I represented, was enough to make me get up from my computer, my heart racing, my hands shaking with adrenaline....

14 comments:

Unknown said...

he's pretty cute.

John Burgess said...

That high-pitched whine... Hipster or Mosquito?

Strelnikov said...

Even with the sign and the context.

Greg Hlatky said...

With a potential for a hipster infestation a city can't be too careful.

MadisonMan said...

The problem with comment sections is that people try to out-do each other. Well, I don't. I try to be the least out-doing of each other person out there!

I like his comment about the noise of typewriters. It calls to mind the time in High School I was typing all night -- a paper due -- and Mom complained the next morning that she couldn't sleep because of the noise. Well, that'll never happen with MS Word on a computer!

Robert Cook said...

My view is that people who get exercised about "fucking hipsters"--excoriating them for their various imagined offenses against society--are people who actually consider themselves to be the truly hip, and they take umbrage at those they perceive as intruding upon a status and community which they jealously consider their own.

Of course, the truly hip couldn't care less about such distinctions, and those who presume, (because of their own vanity in secretly considering themselves part of the "hip elect"), to condemn "fucking hipsters" reveal themselves by their snobbish spite to be that which they (implicitly) accuse the "fucking hipsters" of being: poseurs!

AustinRoth said...

In a world (the 20-somethings to mid-30's) where anything is supposed to go (except, of course, Conservatism), I fail to understand the GROUPHATE against hipsters.

And I live in Austin, ground-zero of the hipster movement.

Henry said...

The xoJane part is pretty depressing.

Mitch H. said...

Even with the sign and the context.

*Especially* with the sign and the context. And I say that as someone who once got roped into a "poetry on demand" thing at a First Night celebration in a college town.

Jonathan Card said...

LOL. Of course, my reaction is, "What a great thing tinting to the park! No running out of power, no distractions." I wonder if there's enough power in a key press to create a quick spark and power a write than SD card....

mikeski said...

In a world (the 20-somethings to mid-30's) where anything is supposed to go (except, of course, Conservatism), I fail to understand the GROUPHATE against hipsters.

Everybody else hears this in their head as a movie promo, right? I mean, we all do that now...right?

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Eh, whatever. You go out in public to get a reaction, and you get a reaction. Shocking.

And you got a lot of hits from it, too. What's the complaint?

Cruising Troll said...

"what they perceive as a slavish devotion to irony, are often in fact just forms of extreme, radical sincerity."

Technically, he's correct, in the same way that sometimes, the individual in a leather jacket astride a Harley IS a 1Percenter. The catch is, 99% of them are poseurs, not hard-ass bikers.

So yes, there undoubtedly are hipsters by way of extreme, radical sincerity. In the experience of most folks though, the slavish devotion to irony and snark is what marks the vast majority of hipsters.

Bob_R said...

It's the guy on the Harley in a t-shirt and shorts that is the poseur. But only for a short time. It's hard to pose with skin grafts.