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Lizstar
@Lizstar

Someone called me a hipster last night, but I cannot be a hipster

A hipster is a fan of obscure things, but relishes in the obscurity, in the superiority. They want you to know about the obscure thing but only so they can keep you out.

Meanwhile, I burst into the room, cradling a game you've never heard of, screaming out "HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF TALL TWINS TOWER PLEASE PLAY IT HEY PLAY PANZER DRAGOON SAGA TOO HEY HEY HEY"


TangoBunny
@TangoBunny

I often thought about this - people who laughed at 'hipsters' tended to be known to have no real knowledge of anything outside the norm.

The joke was:

"What are you listening to?"

"(smugly) Oh, you've probably never heard of it. Ha ha ha. I am very, very niche."

But the reality was:

"What are you listening to?"

"(awkward) (internal screaming: it's my internet friend's Bandcamp track) Oh, uh, something I got online, it's unlikely you know it because--"

"(ROLLS EYES) There you go again, you hipster!"

I used to think it was funny because whenever someone called other people a hipster, it wasn't the "Look at this smug idiot" putdown they thought it was, and generally meant "I'm very basic and think everything I don't know is hipster."


Hexagon
@Hexagon

i do relish in the obscurity of some things i like but i love introducing ppl to it. there's a key difference in liking something because it's outside the norm and liking something because it's fanbase is smaller and thus you can more easily gatekeep that thing.

there's also a bit of, i don't like things that are shit, if fewer mainstream things were shit i would like more mainstream things. there's a more eloquent and detailed way to say that but i don't have the energy right now

dislking something BECAUSE it is outside mainstream pop culture tho? probably the most boring reason to dislike something


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in reply to @Lizstar's post:

in reply to @TangoBunny's post:

I'm reminded of this Roland Barthes quote (from "Blind and Dumb Criticism"):

To be a critic by profession and to proclaim that one understands nothing about existentialism or Marxism (for as it happens, it is these two philosophies particularly that one confesses to be unable to understand) is to elevate one's blindness or dumbness to a universal rule of perception, and to reject from the world Marxism and existentialism: 'I don't understand, therefore you are idiots.'

But if one fears or despises so much the philosophical foundations of a book, and if one demands so insistently the right to understand nothing about them and to say nothing on the subject, why become a critic? To understand, to enlighten, that is your profession, isn't it?