"Hipster" as pejorative.

gossip is ok. self-awareness is ok. any pretense that gossip is so much more than gossip can only rest on semitransparent rationalizations. the inability to see through one's own rationalizations kind of tarnishes one's reputation for self-awareness.

i'm wearing smith & wesson boots right now that i bought at the ocean state job lot for 20 bucks. but nobody knows i'm being slightly ironic except me. they're kind if a cross between boots and high tops actually. waterproof too. i definitely like functional + funny. i had to have them. or the 20 year old inside me who used to buy uzi baseball caps at flea markets in the 80's needed them. i'm no saint!

xp iatee

i agree, but i don't think the rest of 'the internet' is really ironic or non-moralistic (see: image macros), more like dumb and/or crudely cynical

i think the tone of a lot of gawker pop culture stuff is def ironic. not necessarily a bad thing, but there's obviously some ironic distance implicitly understood by the reader between the writer & subject. often being, like, faux-shocked by some banal celebrity gossip; it's understood that you and the writer are both mocking the topic for a reason not earnestly spelled out

you can get almost as much pleasure out of those boots if you switch the mood they induce to one of childish fun. this avoids the need to pretend all your impulses are adult.

i don't think most people in the real world are anything like they are on the internet so its hard to know what people are like or what they actually believe. if you are looking at the internet. the internet seems like fantasyworld to me. the real world is different. kinda. all the mock/ironic/outraged/dumb stances online kinda go away when you just talk to people. in realworld.

word

people who do gawker probably don't care about most of that stuff in their lives. is what i'm trying to say.

its all just a job. even for the fantasy messageboard dudes. well, time to get on the computer and be that guy again. whoever you are. whatever your persona is. its VR, man.

it's true, for all we know those photos you post might not even be of your children

you may not even own a turntable

i work for amway. in iowa.

scott seward, korean hipster grifter

I think writers for gawker can be ironic but gawker: the project just seems like general news aggregation w/ a certain tone. and is clearly run as a business w/ one pretty clear cut goal - the same one as any other media business. like you can sneer at the idea of celebrity gossip even while you're writing/reading it, but ultimately gawker is embracing and reporting on pop culture/media as much as anyone else. jay leno attempts to get lols at paris hilton gossip too.

xps

i just think exxxtreme self-awareness/self-consciousness is how people are now! or at least people who work in media or artists and writers. that's what people are like now. its not like a fad. been a thing since the birth of mad magazine anyway. and just got more intense with every passing year. i blame marshall mcluhan and alfred e. newman and andy warhol. the constant meta looking at each other by looking at ourselves by judging our reactions by other people's reactions is just normal. and "fitting in" is so static and people move so much and info overload and it can drive you crazy. OR you can buy a bieber t-shirt. and everything makes a little more sense. wow, that thai food i had was dynamite.

yup people really overrate the 'hipster' side to this. when your mom is sharing meta gifs on fb it really has not a lot to do w/ what's happening w/ cool 23 y/os in williamsburg.

i'll be honest i like hip people now more than hip people of the past. they're wary - like any good hepcat - but they can be more open. hip people of the past were more stubborn about things and would write a lot of stuff off. i ONLY watch french movies and i'm a communist and that's it. now people flit from one thing to another but they have more info about cool stuff than anyone has ever had and they get exposed to more. they may look ridiculous at times but i think they're smart not to commit to one doctrine.

OTM. Most people are way too quick to assume that their fashion, perspectives, modes of engaging etc are less socially mediated than (insert x subgroup). Probably the thing with 'hipsters' is geographic density and specificity: in Melbourne say it's associated with about four conjacent suburbs. This makes the (mise en) scene appear more concrete and more conformist than the trends followed by others.

I was otming iatee but Scott's post is good too.

Scott was on my doorstep trying to sell me the ability to sell products last week

i just think exxxtreme self-awareness/self-consciousness is how people are now!

The more self aware you are the easier it is to analyze trends and avoid them to preserve your uniqueness! I agree this is what people do today. That's why books like Stuff White People Like are so popular.

Latent sociologist in me somehow wants to see if the graphs of "social awareness" and "social media" align. Mainly just want to know if Instagram is a cause or an effect.

oh man that gawker thanksgiving thing is so funny:

http://gawker.com/5962738/you-are-probably-going-to-enjoy-yourself-this-thanksgiving-so-shut-up

"In fact, the hysteria over the day fuels so much of a nightmarish imaginary culture-clash that it's easy to get the sense that every American is a vegan lesbian atheist socialist New Yorker* dating a black woman and forced to go home to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to be put into a Pray The Gay Away deprogramming camp where they shoot lambs to bathe in their blood, then get sodomized by the local GOP County Chairman and Imperial Kleagle of the local Klavern, then finally sit down to a dinner of turkey stuffed with every possible SEC animal mascot and basted with whatever beer is advertised on Ricky Stenhouse's #17 car. ("Sorry, y'all, this year it's Budweiser Clamato. Go figgur.")"

i never read gawker is it funny like that often? cuz that's my kinda funny.

gawker is hilarious

there are like four funny writers and then some second-stringers. the four funny writers are very funny.

curious who your 1st and 2nd strings are

being called "hipster" as a sign you've made it

"Chances are, you are going to spend one night or most of the weekend with the sorts of aunts and older cousins who smiled politely as you farted up an earlier teenage holiday by buttonholing them and explaining that Speakerboxxx/The Love Below was REAL jazz and would usher in a new and more dynamic era of rap/jazz that made their copy of Kind of Blue look so fucking played"

Ha ha

thanks, atlantic

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/culture_test/incroyables%20vs%20kreayshawn%20irony%20615.png

oh man fantastic photo editing

lil late to the discussion of that nytimes irony piece but this is excellent http://www.theawl.com/2012/12/irony-is-wonderful-terrific-fantastic#more-149401

i love maria bustillos man

this is the first id heard of her but i immediately followed her on twitter, the greatest honor one can bestow upon a writer in our ironic era

she did that piece on DFW right?

this piece has a lot of dfw in it too, and its not all positive ladies and gentleman, you should really read it its v good

excellent point made within, irony is not the opposite of sincerity, and in fact can be employed in the pursuit of sincerity

yes a point memorably made by umberto eco in his postscript to the name of the rose too

Thanks. That was refreshing. I'm going to have to read more MB.

noted hipster, umberto eco

he has the glasses

http://www.denistouret.fr/textes/eco_umberto.jpg

dov charney over here

that is a great article and reflects many of my feelings

btw I think exhibit #1 for why sincerity as overarching outlook to world is nagl is BIG PERP

lol, I just put down that DFW essay on TV last week halfway through reading, it was getting painful

Won't somebody think of the white men?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/guns-and-the-decline-of-the-young-man/

the fuck is that supposed to do with hipsters

rolling christy wampole thread

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LrdLC5OXyGg/TeKhp0mTcnI/AAAAAAAAAug/J1R5-6i7ENM/s1600/Whiteman.jpg

dol't understand why i opened this thread for that.

cant wait to read charles murray's piece on hipster authenticity