HIPSTER.

God I'm sick of that word. Aren't you? I've never called someone a hipster, never thought of them as a hipster, and after some thought and research on the subject here's my conclusion.

THERE ARE NO HIPSTERS. The word has no independent meaning whatsoever. It was invented by entertainment and fashion writers to tell you how you should think, who you should dislike (yourselves? everyone?) and to shoehorn you into a, quote, 'subculture' that does not exist. I love it when people use the word 'subculture' don't you? It's almost like they're admitting they have no clue who or what they're talking about!! But admitting you don't know what you're talking about is bad for your blog. Drives down the number of hits.

Think about it. Almost every young person dresses, or thinks they dress, in 'their own style' when they're really just throwing together clothes with the right look or brand name with slight variations. "Um...well they buy their clothes at thrift shops!" So does everyone else and their one-legged grandma in this economy. So you can't define them by their clothes. Everybody enjoys the thrill of faux-apathy and being non-mainstream, so that doesn't work. Many of us dislike Justin Bieber but we don't call each other hipsters just for that. What's the deal? They're only hipsters if you disagree with them?

When older people say "hipsters," what they really mean is "younger people." When younger people call each other "hipsters," what they really mean is "asshole." It's a glorified pejorative, an empty word we throw at each other because others have told us it's bad. I can tell because I've never heard anyone admit to being one--unlike hippies, metalheads, flappers and beats, who were/are in fact fairly distinct groups that some outsiders hated and some admired. It's like YOLO and swag. I'm told there are people out there who still use these terms un-ironically. WHERE ARE THEY? They're not there. They use the words once, get made fun of, and switch over to poking fun at them.

Hipsters are a group that everybody hates and no one can identify. If you get this and still insist on using the word, you are not cool. You are not clever. You're buying into an illusion and you're part of the problem. The sooner we stop throwing it around, the sooner we can get at what's actually troubling this generation. Like our failure to pull together and get things done because we're too busy ranting online.