My Love/Hate Relationship with Hipsters

By Ali Drake

I am not a hipster. Not only am I poor, nerdy, and categorically uncool, my real downfall is that I care too much. About everything. That being said, many of my dearest friends definitely fall into the subculture. In a bar full of PBR drinkers with ironic t-shirts, skinny jeans (or jeggins), and square, black Weezer style glasses, they fit right in.

When it comes to music, most of my pals talk about bands I've never heard of. Sometimes, the tunes are good and I feel cool for actually liking an "indie" band. But by the time I've heard a band enough to begin to consider myself a fan, the hipsters declare them sell outs.

And sometimes, it seems like they are. Iron and Wine had a song in the Twilight movie. Now, I love Iron and Wine but, man, do I hate Twilight. I'm still torn on that issue.

Anyway, its not just about clothes and music. That mysterious ability to know what will be cool before it actually is, well, that's a trait I envy. The only complaint I really have about a stereotypical hipster is the nonchalance.

There is so much tragedy in the world, and it seems to me that hipsters detach and observe the world through irony colored glasses. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the scope of issues in one's community, let alone in the whole wide world! But that's no reason to give up and stop caring about anything.

Instead of being too cool to care, I'd love to see hipsters make the next cool trend volunteering, donating money to UNICEF, or building a community garden.

How cool would that be?

P.S. This is old, but still hilarious: