Rebellion or something.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I mean, check my ass if I have misunderstood something, but "HEY quit making discontent fashionable, I'm trying to do nothing over here and you look silly." is just about the lamest battle cry ever.

ETA: SOMETHING SOMETHING REALLY REAL FOR REAL REBELS AGAINST TYRANNY ROOL, GUY FAWKES MASKS DROOL.

Annnnnd this.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

But check it-- for social change, hipsters adopting the protest means that the issue is NORMALISED. The idea of a hipster adopting gay rights prior to 1969 is hard to imagine. When hipsters adopt a protest, that protest has become SAFE. And when it is SAFE and NORMAL, it's only a small step towards acceptance.

So hipster adaptation of protest is a bellwether of change in the larger society.

I would really like people to start thinking a little more critically about the word "hipster" and the people it's used to describe.

In general, I consider it a lazy pejorative. It's a mindless categorization that doesn't mean a fucking thing. To look at you, you're a hipster, LMNO. So am I.

I think the general-consensus PD-based definition of "hipster" is a known quantity, and language that might be too vague to use somewhere else is sort of taken in stride here. I'd never call anyone a "damn dirty hipster" outside of this forum and my workplace, but only because everyone sort of has a culture-based idea of what the word means in context.

You're right about pinning down definitions with critical thought, though. When I say "hipster" here it means a different thing than when I say it at work. Both are pejorative though, and both of them often include those hats that aren't really fedoras but people call them fedoras anyway.

It's never been my consensus and the board is littered with plenty of threads demonstrating that.

As far as I can tell, for most people, "hipster" means "anyone I don't like".

I think that's it, "hipster" is shorthand for "anyone I don't like." I could type out "anyone I don't like," but "hipster" rolls off the keyboard much more easily.

I mean, check my ass if I have misunderstood something, but "HEY quit making discontent fashionable, I'm trying to do nothing over here and you look silly." is just about the lamest battle cry ever.

ETA: SOMETHING SOMETHING REALLY REAL FOR REAL REBELS AGAINST TYRANNY ROOL, GUY FAWKES MASKS DROOL.

Fair point. I think my gripe boils down to 'actions speak louder than words' and I'm mostly preaching to myself. Discontent being fashionable is awesome, but when it amounts to no net progress it's frustrating. It's especially frustrating when I see myself being the epitome of what I'm railing against, full of discontent and nothing to do about it. Too jaded to write a letter to an unpaid intern in my senator's office, too busy at work to take a day off and go protesting, too strapped for cash to worry about where the shit I'm buying is made or what kind of GMOs are in the food I feed my kids.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"Change is occurring more slowly than anyone would like" =/= "No net progress".

[tyrannosaurus vex]

"Change is occurring more slowly than anyone would like" =/= "No net progress".

Considering how long it took to go from the African slave trade to the Civil Rights Act (not that that fight is over by a long shot), I should be impressed with how quickly we've gone from "homosexuality is a contagious mental illness" to the demise of DOMA's most horrific provision.

But it's a hard pill to swallow to know that, whenever change comes, it washes over the blank faces of most of humanity. They shift their direction to match the current of new social norms, but they do it mostly unconsciously at best, and usually begrudgingly. While change and progress may not be defeated, they're recognized by most people, either.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

"Change is occurring more slowly than anyone would like" =/= "No net progress".

Considering how long it took to go from the African slave trade to the Civil Rights Act (not that that fight is over by a long shot), I should be impressed with how quickly we've gone from "homosexuality is a contagious mental illness" to the demise of DOMA's most horrific provision.

But it's a hard pill to swallow to know that, whenever change comes, it washes over the blank faces of most of humanity. They shift their direction to match the current of new social norms, but they do it mostly unconsciously at best, and usually begrudgingly. While change and progress may not be defeated, they're recognized by most people, either.

Humanity sucking is not the responsibility of the revolution.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"Change is occurring more slowly than anyone would like" =/= "No net progress".

Considering how long it took to go from the African slave trade to the Civil Rights Act (not that that fight is over by a long shot), I should be impressed with how quickly we've gone from "homosexuality is a contagious mental illness" to the demise of DOMA's most horrific provision.

But it's a hard pill to swallow to know that, whenever change comes, it washes over the blank faces of most of humanity. They shift their direction to match the current of new social norms, but they do it mostly unconsciously at best, and usually begrudgingly. While change and progress may not be defeated, they're recognized by most people, either.

I'm so glad I'm not you.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

"Change is occurring more slowly than anyone would like" =/= "No net progress".

Considering how long it took to go from the African slave trade to the Civil Rights Act (not that that fight is over by a long shot), I should be impressed with how quickly we've gone from "homosexuality is a contagious mental illness" to the demise of DOMA's most horrific provision.

But it's a hard pill to swallow to know that, whenever change comes, it washes over the blank faces of most of humanity. They shift their direction to match the current of new social norms, but they do it mostly unconsciously at best, and usually begrudgingly. While change and progress may not be defeated, they're recognized by most people, either.

I'm so glad I'm not you.

You really enjoy condescension, don't you?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"Change is occurring more slowly than anyone would like" =/= "No net progress".

Considering how long it took to go from the African slave trade to the Civil Rights Act (not that that fight is over by a long shot), I should be impressed with how quickly we've gone from "homosexuality is a contagious mental illness" to the demise of DOMA's most horrific provision.

But it's a hard pill to swallow to know that, whenever change comes, it washes over the blank faces of most of humanity. They shift their direction to match the current of new social norms, but they do it mostly unconsciously at best, and usually begrudgingly. While change and progress may not be defeated, they're recognized by most people, either.

I'm so glad I'm not you.

You really enjoy condescension, don't you?

Yes I do, thank you for noticing!

No, but seriously. I mean, yeah, people do shitty things. But unrelenting pessimism is just so narrow and dismal.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

"Change is occurring more slowly than anyone would like" =/= "No net progress".

Considering how long it took to go from the African slave trade to the Civil Rights Act (not that that fight is over by a long shot), I should be impressed with how quickly we've gone from "homosexuality is a contagious mental illness" to the demise of DOMA's most horrific provision.

But it's a hard pill to swallow to know that, whenever change comes, it washes over the blank faces of most of humanity. They shift their direction to match the current of new social norms, but they do it mostly unconsciously at best, and usually begrudgingly. While change and progress may not be defeated, they're recognized by most people, either.

I'm so glad I'm not you.

You really enjoy condescension, don't you?

Yes I do, thank you for noticing!

No, but seriously. I mean, yeah, people do shitty things. But unrelenting pessimism is just so narrow and dismal.

I don't know about narrow and dismal, but it's exhausting, that's for sure. And I am not always pessimistic, I've just been having a shitty last few days that have aimed my overall outlook at "meh." I should really avoid trying to have Big Ideas when I feel this way, to be honest.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Of course, I also feel that most people are basically decent, and also that this is true:



I mean, that's sort of what that whole "common walls" project was about.

I tend to think that people who put themselves in the "special, thinking person" category and the majority of others in the "mindless followers" category are kind of delusional. False uniqueness and all that.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

"Change is occurring more slowly than anyone would like" =/= "No net progress".

Considering how long it took to go from the African slave trade to the Civil Rights Act (not that that fight is over by a long shot), I should be impressed with how quickly we've gone from "homosexuality is a contagious mental illness" to the demise of DOMA's most horrific provision.

But it's a hard pill to swallow to know that, whenever change comes, it washes over the blank faces of most of humanity. They shift their direction to match the current of new social norms, but they do it mostly unconsciously at best, and usually begrudgingly. While change and progress may not be defeated, they're recognized by most people, either.

I'm so glad I'm not you.

You really enjoy condescension, don't you?

Yes I do, thank you for noticing!

No, but seriously. I mean, yeah, people do shitty things. But unrelenting pessimism is just so narrow and dismal.

I don't know about narrow and dismal, but it's exhausting, that's for sure. And I am not always pessimistic, I've just been having a shitty last few days that have aimed my overall outlook at "meh." I should really avoid trying to have Big Ideas when I feel this way, to be honest.

Understandable, and I hope things get better soon.

That's very honest of you, and I appreciate that.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

This reminds of of why i hate when people use the word sheeple. It implies that everyone who is not doing it the way you think its supposed to be done are mindlessly following someone elses ideas. Maybe in some cases thats true but its unfair to the people who just happen to like it that way or actually have thought it out and still get lumped under that term. Likewise i have a particular image in my head when someone says hispter much in the way that i get an image when someone says metalhead. But thats still an exaggeration and overemphasizing their tastes instead of their ideas. Theres more to a person than deliberate obscurity in their entertainment selections or what kind of hats they like to wear.

[Bruno]

Scion had a commercial a few years ago about "sheeple".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWxp3Pe8hmI

I couldn't imagine who they thought they were marketing to. Kids, I guess.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Scion had a commercial a few years ago about "sheeple".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWxp3Pe8hmI

I couldn't imagine who they thought they were marketing to. Kids, I guess.

Wow, that is an astonishingly bad commercial. WTF?

"Sheeple" reminds me of this:

[The Johnny]

I can't go into details but, I have a friend...

This friend bitches about a specific organization that has a front of helping a certain vulnerable group just to divert resources to their own pockets... bitch up and down Righteous Avenue...

"Dude, you should report them, you have first-hand knowledge of what is happening."

"Oh but, I could get into trouble, I fear for myself."

"Fine, then stfu and stop bitching about it, because you are basicly co-opted and are benefitting from it."

**Cue shamed, silent face**

It's what i would call the "Daria easy-way-out"... cynical attitude, witty sarcasm, but ultimately supports the status-quo with its passivity and lack of action.

So either get off your ass and come up with a better plan AND implement it, or just shut up and get out of the way.