Hipsters? In my nerdery?

[Godhead]

I show up to basketball games in a wizard outfit, does that mean I'm bringing my nerdery into sports?

Spoiler

I wish I had a lizard costume to put under it so I could demand people call me "Dizzard the Lizard Wizard"

 

[Ravenbom]

Why does anyone care about what hipsters are appropriating?

I was a nerd before I was a hipster and the only thing that bugs me about hipsters right now are the stupid big plastic glasses and mom jeans that they started wearing before EVERYBODY started wearing big plastic rim glasses and mom jeans.


Mom jeans (and big ugly glasses to a lesser extent) are the real plague that hipsters have infected upon the world! What the fuck is wrong with you OP! Get your fucking priorities straight! Mom jeans are taking over! Infecting our hot young girls! 16 is becoming the new 45! I don't even know where to aim my dick anymore!

Who cares if the average hipster can't tell the difference between Bubble Bobble and Bust-A-Move? Mom jeans are becoming a pandemic and you're worried that someone might call the Konami Code the Nintendo Code?
I couldn't care less if a girl doesn't know the difference between Daisy, Peach and Paulina as long as she's not wearing mom jeans.

 

[Something Amyss]

As Harry Dresden put it when commenting about Molly's outfit to her father. "Let he who has never stone washed his jeans, cast the first stone."

I thought it was "let he who didn't wear Hammer pants cast the first stone."

Same idea, though.

Most people probably have done exactly that, though, and I don't really care who hasn't because that's where the "hipster" thing comes in in the first place. That "here first" territorialism is exactly what the OP mocked. I used to joke about fellow Nine Inch Nails fans because being a fan since Halo 1 was such a big deal to them. The resulting jokes with my friends were about how I knew I loved NiN from Halo 0, or how I loved the first single 15 minutes before it was recorded.

And I think I have a pretty good excuse. I was 9 when "Down In It" was released.

As a parallel, I can say a lot of bad things about ICP, but I've never had a Juggalo care that I wasn't "down with the clown" since the first record, or that I only really ever cared for two of the albums in the first place. Or that I still mock "Miracles."

I can, however, safely say I never touched grunge. The less said about what I was actually into, the better. >.>

 

[EternallyBored]

I always thought the more stereotypical hipsters and nerds tended to be very similar: an obsession with faux intellectualism and knowing tidbits of useless trivia to hold over other peoples head, rampant elitism and exclusionary behavior coupled with a general air of superiority over more mainstream groups, and a sense of constantly needing to be the "first" to do or know something entirely useless outside their own clique. There are differences of course, but the stereotypes have a lot of cross over.

Of course, that's just stereotypes, hipster seems to have become such an abused term that apparently it now just means: people who like things in a way I don't like.

If the small minority of nerds with 0 social skills and a massive sense of elitism and self-entitlement couldn't ruin my hobbies for me and my friends, I don't think some people who are only into said hobbies to be quirky and different are going to do much damage either.

Really, the people that obsess over how detrimental hipsters apparently are tend to annoy me far more than actual hipsters. Hipsters should fit right in with the more annoying elements of nerdy cliques, an inflated sense of superiority and elitism is something that most nerds should be used to dealing with from their fellow hobbyists, lord knows I got enough of it on the early days of the internet.

 

[visiblenoise]

Someone tell the rest of us the point of all this classification please

 

[happyninja42]

As Harry Dresden put it when commenting about Molly's outfit to her father. "Let he who has never stone washed his jeans, cast the first stone."

I thought it was "let he who didn't wear Hammer pants cast the first stone."

Same idea, though.

Most people probably have done exactly that, though, and I don't really care who hasn't because that's where the "hipster" thing comes in in the first place. That "here first" territorialism is exactly what the OP mocked. I used to joke about fellow Nine Inch Nails fans because being a fan since Halo 1 was such a big deal to them. The resulting jokes with my friends were about how I knew I loved NiN from Halo 0, or how I loved the first single 15 minutes before it was recorded.

And I think I have a pretty good excuse. I was 9 when "Down In It" was released.

As a parallel, I can say a lot of bad things about ICP, but I've never had a Juggalo care that I wasn't "down with the clown" since the first record, or that I only really ever cared for two of the albums in the first place. Or that I still mock "Miracles."

I can, however, safely say I never touched grunge. The less said about what I was actually into, the better. >.>

Newp, it was "stone washed jeans" in the book. Continuing the "stoning" reference. xD Or well, at least that's what he said in Proven Guilty. He might have made a Hammer Pants comment in another book or short story and I just don't remember it.

Yeah, I've never understood the "OG Fan" mentality, or stating that you were a fan before something got popular some other way. I don't care, and you can be certain that the performer doesn't care. They put their song in a trailer for a video game for example, or in the game itself, and suddenly they have thousands of new fans buying their stuff. You think they give a shit how you learned of them? Hell no, they're happy for the publicity, because they want to make a living doing the stuff they love.

I dunno, I've just gotten over that stuff. I'm sure there was a time in my life where if you told me you didn't like something I did, I would be offended and upset. Though that might simply have been due to how you presented your issues. If you said simply "I think the show sucked, and here is why" I might've been fine. But if your comment was like "This show sucks, and anyone who is a fan of it, including you, is a panty sniffing retard, who should go back to kindergarten." Then yeah, I'm going to dish out a whole bunch of "fuck you" in response. But that's mostly because you made it personal I think, not because you hate what I love.

These days, I just don't care. Ok, you don't like what I do, that's fine. We can discuss the reasons why if you want, or just agree to disagree. I'm 100% certain there is something you like that I don't, but I don't hold it against you. As long as you give me the same courtesy, I'm fine with it.

I guess that's why I find this "OMG Hipsters are the cancer of society" bullshit so laughable, and absurd. News flash, young people do silly things that they think is cool for their age. We've all done it, and we will continue to do it until humans stop existing. Calm down, take a chill pill, and just let the kids have their thing.

 

[Redryhno]

Likewise, I've only very recently been introduced to the board game scene at my local comic book shop, I was not shunned for my lack of knowledge in everything board game related, they welcomed me with open arms and were more than happy to explain how to play.

To be fair, it's never been about the people that admit they know nothing and want to learn(like most people). But the people that waltz in and act like they know everything in a fandom when they actually don't. Nobody likes bandwagoners, and for good reason, there's a good chance people will drop off the moment it becomes inconvenient to them. And something being seen as previously unpopular sorta has a habit of attracting annoyances.

In any case,for the most part, beyond a funny, hipster, nerd, geek, they're all nearly the same to me.

Nerds didn't want to be shunned, they coped with being shunned the best way they could. Lets not engage in any revisionist history.

As someone that sorta did...and was a nerd(and to a point still do because it's simpler to have a handful of buddies and people that know you than have a bunch of people think you're approachable with their problems you probably have either no interest in or ability to help with)...I don't think it's so much revisionist so much as you not wanting to acknowledge other people's opinions and experiences...

Hell, a large part of nerdom was shunned for the things they like and now they're shunned because they were apprehensive over the things they love becoming popular and bringing in the EXACT same type of people that threw their action figures against the school walls and made fun of their shirts. Then of course there's the "pretty" factor in that there's actually universally attractive "nerds" now that weren't shamed for their looks. There's alot of resentment from old-schoolers, because not only were they brow-beaten as kids, they're now being brow-beaten as adults in the things they took solace in. And they're being told to accept unconditionally, something that wasn't extended to them for most of their lives in the fandoms.

And personally I find the "unconditionally" part of it more than a bit silly. Because there's far too many people that get into things and really have no idea of the history of anything in it but act as if they do.

 

[Simonism451]

if you actually happen to be socially awkward and not very attractive, it also tells you that it's okay to be those things and that there's a group of people out there who will accept you despite that.

Except it doesn't say that. It sets up a wall around "real nerds" and nothing else. It says nothing about acceptance (and honestly, nerd comm unity can be more exclusive and cliquey than the dreaded "jocks").

The irony, though, is that it exemplifies hipster" behavour.

Doesn't it, though? Yeah, it sets up a wall around "real nerds" but the people that are included in that walled area often exhibit traits that are usually seen as much more severe drawbacks in wider society than they are within that specific circle. You are probably less likely to be made the butt of a joke about being overweight and socially awkward by the members of your shitty high-school Star Trek fanclub than you are in your regular classes (as long as you're a white, straight dude, at least). I'm not saying nerd "culture" is more accepting than society at large (far from it!) I'm just saying that they're accepting of different things, which can lead to it feeling like a safe haven for a subset of people who don't fit in with the rest of the world but do fit in with the nerd crowd. Nerd subculture might not be better than other subcultures, but at least it's about you (some you out there, at least) and people generally enjoy stuff being about or for them.
Is it silly, selfish and does it make gatekeeping okay? Yes, yes and no, obviously. However, it does make a bit of subjective sense of the resistance to opening the hobby up to everybody (meaning cool people/people I disagree with)

 

[RaikuFA]

HIIIIIIPPSSSSSTTTTEEEEEERRRRRSSSSS!!! RAGE!!! SMASH!!! DESTROY!!!

*ahem* Sorry about that. I really hate hipsters. But I'll say what I said about "fake nerd girls": let them do what they want. They'll fuck up eventuality. Let the gatekeeping come naturally. Hipsters already do gatekeeping with music (part of why I made that music thread.) Don't stoop to their level.

 

[Simonism451]

if you actually happen to be socially awkward and not very attractive, it also tells you that it's okay to be those things and that there's a group of people out there who will accept you despite that.

Except it doesn't say that. It sets up a wall around "real nerds" and nothing else. It says nothing about acceptance (and honestly, nerd comm unity can be more exclusive and cliquey than the dreaded "jocks").

The irony, though, is that it exemplifies hipster" behavour.

Doesn't it, though? Yeah, it sets up a wall around "real nerds" but the people that are included in that walled area often exhibit traits that are usually seen as much more severe drawbacks in wider society than they are within that specific circle. You are probably less likely to be made the butt of a joke about being overweight and socially awkward by the members of your shitty high-school Star Trek fanclub than you are in your regular classes (as long as you're a white, straight dude, at least). I'm not saying nerd "culture" is more accepting than society at large (far from it!) I'm just saying that they're accepting of different things, which can lead to it feeling like a safe haven for a subset of people who don't fit in with the rest of the world but do fit in with the nerd crowd. Nerd subculture might not be better than other subcultures, but at least it's about you (some you out there, at least) and people generally enjoy stuff being about or for them.
Is it silly, selfish and does it make gatekeeping okay? Yes, yes and no, obviously. However, it does make a bit of subjective sense of the resistance to opening the hobby up to everybody (meaning cool people/people I disagree with)

If we can all agree that it's shitty, maybe we can just stop at that and leave the rest of the post-modernist equivocation for a topic that deserves more thought?

Nobody's forcing you to read my posts, sweetheart.

 

[sageoftruth]

Saying "nerd culture" is like saying "****** culture".

So true. Those words work in a surprisingly similar fashion. Call a friend or someone who shares your hobby a "nerd" and he'll nod and laugh, but if don't fit the nerd label, and you call someone a "nerd" expect to get into a fight, or at least an argument.

 

[Atmos Duality]

And here I though imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.
...Well, apart from identity theft.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

Holy fucking shit, I don't ccccaaaarrrreeeee

Just let me be me and not laugh at me on social media

That's all I want

Now that's not what YOU may want but who wants to argue about labels?

Not me and that's the important part c:

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Hell, a large part of nerdom was shunned for the things they like and now they're shunned because they were apprehensive over the things they love becoming popular and bringing in the EXACT same type of people that threw their action figures against the school walls and made fun of their shirts.

The same type of people is it? Maybe that's where the well deserved animosity is from. Judging people based on utterly superficial traits and assuming they are the same. Assuming that they could not have been interested before. A bunch of whining about their past doesn't excuse their actions towards people they never met before in the least. It's a childish way of thinking and adults that act immaturely like that get well deserved scorn.

Then of course there's the "pretty" factor in that there's actually universally attractive "nerds" now that weren't shamed for their looks. There's alot of resentment from old-schoolers, because not only were they brow-beaten as kids, they're now being brow-beaten as adults in the things they took solace in. And they're being told to accept unconditionally, something that wasn't extended to them for most of their lives in the fandoms.

Oh boo fucking hoo. If they can't grow up and recognize the difference between people from their past and new people and carry a chip on their shoulder over it then they're a bunch of children. I don't see why decent people should tolerate others stubbornly clinging to having the emotional maturity of a tomato.

 

[RaikuFA]

if you actually happen to be socially awkward and not very attractive, it also tells you that it's okay to be those things and that there's a group of people out there who will accept you despite that.

Except it doesn't say that. It sets up a wall around "real nerds" and nothing else. It says nothing about acceptance (and honestly, nerd comm unity can be more exclusive and cliquey than the dreaded "jocks").

The irony, though, is that it exemplifies hipster" behavour.

Doesn't it, though? Yeah, it sets up a wall around "real nerds" but the people that are included in that walled area often exhibit traits that are usually seen as much more severe drawbacks in wider society than they are within that specific circle. You are probably less likely to be made the butt of a joke about being overweight and socially awkward by the members of your shitty high-school Star Trek fanclub than you are in your regular classes (as long as you're a white, straight dude, at least). I'm not saying nerd "culture" is more accepting than society at large (far from it!) I'm just saying that they're accepting of different things, which can lead to it feeling like a safe haven for a subset of people who don't fit in with the rest of the world but do fit in with the nerd crowd. Nerd subculture might not be better than other subcultures, but at least it's about you (some you out there, at least) and people generally enjoy stuff being about or for them.
Is it silly, selfish and does it make gatekeeping okay? Yes, yes and no, obviously. However, it does make a bit of subjective sense of the resistance to opening the hobby up to everybody (meaning cool people/people I disagree with)

If we can all agree that it's shitty, maybe we can just stop at that and leave the rest of the post-modernist equivocation for a topic that deserves more thought?

HIIIIIIPPSSSSSTTTTEEEEEERRRRRSSSSS!!! RAGE!!! SMASH!!! DESTROY!!!

*ahem* Sorry about that. I really hate hipsters. But I'll say what I said about "fake nerd girls": let them do what they want. They'll fuck up eventuality. Let the gatekeeping come naturally. Hipsters already do gatekeeping with music (part of why I made that music thread.) Don't stoop to their level.

No, it's just that everyone is already through the gate now, and the gatekeepers are alone in a crowd. I feel badly for them, but they're the ones who were NOT unfairly treated like social outcasts.

It's not about your skin, or your hobbies, or your friends. It's about shit like thinking "Nerd" means anything special and that you have a right to watch people like hawks for a fuckup. Nitpicking is the dark, ugly side of nerds everywhere.

Nitpicking/gatekeeping happens in every culture. As I mentioned, music culture does it too. IMO even worse.

 

[Redryhno]

Hell, a large part of nerdom was shunned for the things they like and now they're shunned because they were apprehensive over the things they love becoming popular and bringing in the EXACT same type of people that threw their action figures against the school walls and made fun of their shirts.

The same type of people is it? Maybe that's where the well deserved animosity is from. Judging people based on utterly superficial traits and assuming they are the same. Assuming that they could not have been interested before. A bunch of whining about their past doesn't excuse their actions towards people they never met before in the least. It's a childish way of thinking and adults that act immaturely like that get well deserved scorn.

Then of course there's the "pretty" factor in that there's actually universally attractive "nerds" now that weren't shamed for their looks. There's alot of resentment from old-schoolers, because not only were they brow-beaten as kids, they're now being brow-beaten as adults in the things they took solace in. And they're being told to accept unconditionally, something that wasn't extended to them for most of their lives in the fandoms.

Oh boo fucking hoo. If they can't grow up and recognize the difference between people from their past and new people and carry a chip on their shoulder over it then they're a bunch of children. I don't see why decent people should tolerate others stubbornly clinging to having the emotional maturity of a tomato.

My point was that people are all superficial shits to some degree or another, and when someone gets judged for superficial crap for a large part of their life, quit throwing a fit when that person starts doing some of the same stuff. Let them have their corner and grumble under their breath, they'll either change their minds, or they won't. Don't bother them, they probably won't bother you.

Hell, if they don't act like they know better than them when they really don't and they'll probably be quite a bit more amicable. That's pretty much all my post was talking about. I think you read far too much that you wanted there buddy.

 

[EternallyBored]

Saying "nerd culture" is like saying "****** culture".

So true. Those words work in a surprisingly similar fashion. Call a friend or someone who shares your hobby a "nerd" and he'll nod and laugh, but if don't fit the nerd label, and you call someone a "nerd" expect to get into a fight, or at least an argument.

Haha where the hell do you live that calling someone a nerd will get you into a fight? Nowadays someone would be more likely to think of it as a largely neutral descriptor, I've called strangers or recent acquaintances nerd or nerdy before, not a fight or argument among those instances, several have taken it as a compliment within the last couple years.

Jesus, even when I was a kid and nerd was largely seen as a negative descriptor it was still never considered fight worthy, or even that serious of an insult, and I grew up in a lot of those social circles, i.e. sci-fi, tabletop games, comics, and early video games. I don't think I've ever even got into a verbal argument over the word beyond usual schoolyard insults friends yelled at each other, bullies tended to use far worse insults than calling someone a nerd. Calling someone a nerd was equivalent to calling someone a dork, jerk, prep, airhead, or maybe loser, none of those were anything more serious than schoolyard insults.

Even in High School and college calling someone a nerd was a weak insult at best, treating it like a serious insult would have been more likely to have those around you thinking you were an idiot using insults like a 7 year old. Pretty much any time in the 90's when I ran into the word, trying to use it as a serious insult would have gotten you mocked for acting like a lame villain from a Revenge of the Nerds movie.

Maybe the context is different outside the West Coast, but the very idea of trying to compare nerd to really any sort of racial slur is just laughable at best, I would treat being called a Cracker more seriously than someone trying to insult me by calling me a nerd. Outside of elementary school where calling someone a doodyhead could get you into a verbal argument using nerd as an insult was generally seen as something children under 10 called each other because they weren't allowed to cuss yet.

 

[Redryhno]

Hell, a large part of nerdom was shunned for the things they like and now they're shunned because they were apprehensive over the things they love becoming popular and bringing in the EXACT same type of people that threw their action figures against the school walls and made fun of their shirts.

The same type of people is it? Maybe that's where the well deserved animosity is from. Judging people based on utterly superficial traits and assuming they are the same. Assuming that they could not have been interested before. A bunch of whining about their past doesn't excuse their actions towards people they never met before in the least. It's a childish way of thinking and adults that act immaturely like that get well deserved scorn.

Then of course there's the "pretty" factor in that there's actually universally attractive "nerds" now that weren't shamed for their looks. There's alot of resentment from old-schoolers, because not only were they brow-beaten as kids, they're now being brow-beaten as adults in the things they took solace in. And they're being told to accept unconditionally, something that wasn't extended to them for most of their lives in the fandoms.

Oh boo fucking hoo. If they can't grow up and recognize the difference between people from their past and new people and carry a chip on their shoulder over it then they're a bunch of children. I don't see why decent people should tolerate others stubbornly clinging to having the emotional maturity of a tomato.

My point was that people are all superficial shits to some degree or another, and when someone gets judged for superficial crap for a large part of their life, quit throwing a fit when that person starts doing some of the same stuff. Let them have their corner and grumble under their breath, they'll either change their minds, or they won't. Don't bother them, they probably won't bother you.

Hell, if they don't act like they know better than them when they really don't and they'll probably be quite a bit more amicable. That's pretty much all my post was talking about. I think you read far too much that you wanted there buddy.

No you failed to really indict everyone as being such. You're just defending it for a bunch of people who apparently refuse to grow up and carry a chip on their shoulder like a 5 year old. I loathe jackasses who try to excuse their behavior because someone was mean to them in the past. It's the height of childish behavior, I despise intellectual laziness like that. And their corner apparently encompasses more than just themselves so if they fuck off to a desert island, cool, but that doesn't seem to be what they do or we wouldn't encounter them

No I'm reading your lame excuses for their behavior aside from that stuff about not knowing better. If it were just the not knowing better junk I'd roll my eyes and not bother to reply, simply disagreeing with your assessment of the problem. I responded because I don't care for the BS excuses for some people being emotionally retarded and acting like 5 year olds, holding grudges against people who did nothing.

Ok...if you say that's what I'm doing, that must be what I"m doing, because as you know, someone saying that's not what they're doing means they must be doing exactly what someone else says they're doing.

Toodle pip.

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Hell, a large part of nerdom was shunned for the things they like and now they're shunned because they were apprehensive over the things they love becoming popular and bringing in the EXACT same type of people that threw their action figures against the school walls and made fun of their shirts.

The same type of people is it? Maybe that's where the well deserved animosity is from. Judging people based on utterly superficial traits and assuming they are the same. Assuming that they could not have been interested before. A bunch of whining about their past doesn't excuse their actions towards people they never met before in the least. It's a childish way of thinking and adults that act immaturely like that get well deserved scorn.

Then of course there's the "pretty" factor in that there's actually universally attractive "nerds" now that weren't shamed for their looks. There's alot of resentment from old-schoolers, because not only were they brow-beaten as kids, they're now being brow-beaten as adults in the things they took solace in. And they're being told to accept unconditionally, something that wasn't extended to them for most of their lives in the fandoms.

Oh boo fucking hoo. If they can't grow up and recognize the difference between people from their past and new people and carry a chip on their shoulder over it then they're a bunch of children. I don't see why decent people should tolerate others stubbornly clinging to having the emotional maturity of a tomato.

My point was that people are all superficial shits to some degree or another, and when someone gets judged for superficial crap for a large part of their life, quit throwing a fit when that person starts doing some of the same stuff. Let them have their corner and grumble under their breath, they'll either change their minds, or they won't. Don't bother them, they probably won't bother you.

Hell, if they don't act like they know better than them when they really don't and they'll probably be quite a bit more amicable. That's pretty much all my post was talking about. I think you read far too much that you wanted there buddy.

No you failed to really indict everyone as being such. You're just defending it for a bunch of people who apparently refuse to grow up and carry a chip on their shoulder like a 5 year old. I loathe jackasses who try to excuse their behavior because someone was mean to them in the past. It's the height of childish behavior, I despise intellectual laziness like that. And their corner apparently encompasses more than just themselves so if they fuck off to a desert island, cool, but that doesn't seem to be what they do or we wouldn't encounter them

No I'm reading your lame excuses for their behavior aside from that stuff about not knowing better. If it were just the not knowing better junk I'd roll my eyes and not bother to reply, simply disagreeing with your assessment of the problem. I responded because I don't care for the BS excuses for some people being emotionally retarded and acting like 5 year olds, holding grudges against people who did nothing.

Ok...if you say that's what I'm doing, that must be what I"m doing, because as you know, someone saying that's not what they're doing means they must be doing exactly what someone else says they're doing.

Toodle pip.

Yup because telling people to leave them alone isn't at all meant as a defense! Starting the pity party for the oh so emotionally damaged nerds isn't meant to try and defend them at all! "Let them have their corner" is not a defense. Really! Because you say so!

You never denied it anyways and you continued to defend them. You utterly failed to realize which part of your post mine was addressing and told me the point of your post as a whole, which I really didn't care about. I cared about the nonsense you were spouting while getting to your point.

 

[Redryhno]

Yup because telling people to leave them alone isn't at all meant as a defense! Starting the pity party for the oh so emotionally damaged nerds isn't meant to try and defend them at all! "Let them have their corner" is not a defense. Really! Because you say so!

You never denied it anyways and you continued to defend them. You utterly failed to realize which part of your post mine was addressing and told me the point of your post as a whole, which I really didn't care about. I cared about the nonsense you were spouting while getting to your point.

Dude, I think you really need to step back and calm down here a bit...because it was not meant as a defense, it was meant as advice, because if someone is grumbling and not bothering anyone beyond that, stop giving a shit, because it's a waste of time to try to "correct" them.

Hell, I was trying to give perspective and understanding, something that a certain subset of the population of the internet seriously has no care or want for if it doesn't conform to their views.

Also, I think I'm sorta done seeing your stuff show up in my box, because I don't believe I've ever had a conversation with you that didn't start out heavily confrontational and full of accusations that just kept piling up. Keep responding if you want, but know that I'm not gonna be seeing them. Also I need to go take my after-work nap. See ya around.

PS

I'm pretty sure this thread was meant as a joke that some people took far too seriously.