The problem is that we’ve lumped too many subcultures and stereotypes into the definition of the hipster. As a result, the word, as an insult, has become completely meaningless. For example, those dorks who dress like it’s 1932 and wear suspenders and buy handlebar mustache wax, those people are defined as hipsters. Young liberals who listen to NPR and write their screenplays in Starbucks, they are hipsters too. So are white kids who listen to hip-hop. Bearded dudes in flannel shirts, girls in rompers with birds on them, people who shop at Urban Outfitters, people with black-framed glasses, rockabilly couples, Prius drivers, bike-riders, Pitchforkreaders, thrift store regulars, vinyl collectors, folk rockers, art school students, trust fund kids, vegans, ex-punks, anyone between the ages of 22 and 35, and any of the 2.6 million people who live in Brooklyn. All hipsters, apparently. If everyone is a hipster, then no one is a hipster.
Hipsters are the best thing we’ve got.
