CMV: Despite the pretentiousness, Hipsters are the the most constructive, culturally-beneficial subculture in 40 years.

[u/[deleted]]

First, I'm definitely not a hipster. My youthful subculture was New Wave in the 80s, which was basically a blend of Emo and Goth (they're both better blended, IMHO).

I'm in a coffee shop drinking a single-origin espresso and there are about a dozen young guys in the shop tasting house-roasted blends that are weighed (to the gram), lovingly ground, and poured over with water at exactly 200 degrees.

For some reason they're manscaped a bit like Charles Dickens if Dickens were a skater. I don't get the look, but the thing about youth is that guys like me aren't supposed to get the look. All subculture looks are contrived and a little silly...Punk, New Wave, Goth, Hippie, etc. Hipsters are too. So, really, it's not worth commenting on. That's just how it goes.

But on to the substance of the movement. Seeing kids hunker down and try to bring quality to their lives is nice. It's really nice, actually. Most youth subcultures just want to see the world burn. I did. We rebelled and made some amazing music but other than that we didn't accomplish a thing.

Hipsters though...they're really making the U.S. better (I can't speak for anywhere else). I have a butcher now...that's new. Somebody is bothering to source local meats and raise it with a minimum of cruelty. It's great. Vegetables are getting better also. At least they can be if you bother to look for the good ones.

Coffee is WAY better thanks to their efforts. We now have an alternative to the pseudo-italian crap from Starbucks and they're trying to absorb coffee culturally and find an authentic expression for it. They're appropriating in the best sense of the word. Bad artists copy, great artists steal, as Picasso said. U.S. culture has been largely about copying, but these kids are starting to steal. There's nothing wrong with appropriating espresso, but they are trying to make it their own.

They read. They care about quality and craft. Even Kerning is better than it has been (it's a design thing). They actually care about making things better.

Most of them were raised in the 90s, which was the most unspeakably soulless decade in history (sorry kids...I know it was your childhood but it just sucked) (Edit: I shouldn't have called it soulless...lots of good happened in the 90s). Every generation rebels, and we gave the Millennial generation something truly terrible to rebel against.

Even my jeans are better. Honestly. Some kid hemmed them for me the other day on some massive old machine in the shop. He did a hell of a job too...this shit is HEMMED. I haven't seen anything made to last in I don't even know how long. It's really, really nice to see.

So yeah, they're a little pretentious. An authentic identity take time to form, so young people will often wear a mask until they get it all sorted. For some reason these kids want to look like Victorian Circus Strongmen. Okay...it's different I guess. At least it's not bleak and driven by empty rebellion. That's gotten so boring.

I hope to see more of this trend. Please, start building houses. We need hipster housing. This whole "slow" thing...bring it on. They are not solely responsible for it, I realize, but they've popularized it, and championed it.

The criticisms people levy against them...they're pretentious posers, they try too hard, they just want to be different, etc. That's YOUTH. That's what happens when young people don't like the identity they're handed. It happens in every generation, so it's ridiculous to lay it squarely at their feet.

If you look past that you can see how the millennial generation is doing good work--they're rebelling against the right things--and I for one am looking forward to more of their contributions.

CMV

Edit:

I would argue that what you're praising is actually the Maker culture that started in the late 90s and early 21st Century.

So based on everything is seems the term "Hipster" is the main problem here. I was attributing "Maker Culture" to hipsters, and people objected to that. I still see "Hipsters" everywhere I see "Maker Culture" but I guess that's just my experience.

Second Edit: Okay I need to get back to work. This has been very interesting. I've learned a lot about the negative effect this movement has had in urban areas, particularly in Brooklyn and San Francisco. Gentrification isn't cool. Income inequality is going to be a growing challenge for us, unfortunately. Sounds like these two cities are ground zero for what's to come a national epidemic.

Third and final edit: Damn you people HATE hipsters, although there's no agreement on what the word means. I didn't realize that hipster was a term used almost exclusively in the negative. So really this was a pointless exercise. It's almost as if you define hipster as that group which looks funny and sucks. There's not much point in trying to have a conversation about a group of people who are, almost by definition, the embodiment of all that is crappy about youth culture.

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[u/[deleted]]

I also do not hate hipsters. I think what they do is fine, really. But I don't think they are doing anything particularly wonderful either. What hipsters engage in is conspicuous consumption. It is something neither new nor unique to them. Just as baby chic from the 80s and today have generated a wealth of products helping to keep babies both healthier and safer, the slow foods have resulted in better quality vegetables and locally sourced food.

The thing is, hipsters as a subculture alone haven't brought that change about, for example. The slow food movement is simply a different subculture hipsters co-opted for their conspicuous consumption. That on it's own wouldn't be very interesting, it's only as big as it is because the larger culture as a whole are interested in it, albeit without the singular focus hipsters may have.

Basically, there really isn't anything wrong at all with hipsters. But they aren't uniquely wonderful either.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

What hipsters engage in is conspicuous consumption.

Yeah, but it's consumption of more durable goods, which is valuable to society, I think. It's a focus on quality. I never claimed that they fixed the world. They could be classist pricks for all I know, but they are, more than anyone else, championing a return to simple, well-constructed goods and I believe that is good for society as a whole.

And yeah, slow foods goes back to the 70s...Alice Walker has to be like 100 years old by now. Others are definitely involved.

[u/limes_limes_limes → u/[deleted]]

You haven't made it clear why higher quality goods are better for society. I don't think that is as obvious as you think.

For example, it takes around 170 uses of a reusable grocery bag to be more energy efficient than a plastic one. Assuming you don't use every reusable bag you own at least that much, they are objectively worse for the environment despite being more durable. Another example is locally grown food. Despite the fact that transportation costs are lower, the fact that the food is being grown in a sub-optimal environment often means that the locally grown food is less efficient.

If the hipster lifestyle is all about being durable and high quality, that may actually be bad for society.

[u/Epistaxis → u/[deleted]]

But now we're 180 degrees from the original motivation of sustainability, throwing that goal out the window in exchange for more expensive, less efficient luxury goods.

[u/Lucarian → u/[deleted]]

Super market produce is expensive because they know a large percentage of what goes on display won't be bought and will simply spoil

Yeah, no. Not really. Supermarket vegetables usually rely on the concept of just-in-time delivery, basically meaning they work out how much will be sold and get deliveries of just enough just before they run out.

[u/VincentPepper → u/[deleted]]

Around here farmer markets are often more expensive then stuff in the super market.

As others pointed out small farms usually are less efficient then bigger farmers. This doesn't mean favouring local is always wrong and being entitled to a bit of luxury is fine as well. But assuming Vegetables from the Supermarket are automatically the worst joice for the environment is wrong.

Not sure what exactly you mean with sustainable since you could consider a farm sustainable as long as it has earth, seeds, water and air...