Hipsters and Stuff White People Like

A Parker has turned us onto the website stuffwhitepeoplelike.com so Fi and I have been sitting home by the fire with the tree lights on and the snow falling outside of our windows looking at this website and laughing. Not long ago, and sporadically throughout the year, really, we have been accosted with criticism from people we don't know either very well or at all. Beyond that, we have also recently heard that we are not in the "hipster" group and it's been suggested that that group does not like us because we are not "hipsters."

This is perplexing to me. I didn't know what a "hipster" was until Fi had me google it online just ten minutes ago. It was then that I learned, from multiple sources, that hipsters are not cool, though they seem to think they are. But, moreso, they deny being hipsters, take up causes or interests without actually caring for or about (or maybe not even knowing) what the actual reason for those causes or interests are (in other words, the heart and soul of them); they desire to be seen as environmentally friendly, vegan/vegetarian, indie-loving, culturally aware, fashion-saavy intellectual do-it-yourself-ers. (Dustin would like to add, by way of illustration, that he is now wearing flannel-lined cargo pants and a Mizzou hoodie-neither of which are worn in an ironic way. AKA-not hipster attire.) However, according to the websites we read (since, need I remind you, we aren't hipsters so we NEED these websites to educate us), hipsters also have a tendency to be on the middle-upper class side yet give the outward appearance of being more on the 'independent', middle-just-getting-by class. In other words, they dress the part, but don't actually live it the way organic farmers and their indie-band singing children do, for example. Those are the real indies whilst "hipsters" are the wannabes, it turns out.

Dustin: Basically, these are people who will put down a shitload of wine and hummus while using terms from their critical theory anthologies to explain why your favorite band sucks. 

The question we're dealing with here is one A. Parker brought up at our Christmas party, which is whether or not the "white people" described on the Stuff White People Like" blog are hipsters. It's like an ACT question: True or false -- All hipsters are white people, and all white people are hipsters.

I'm going with false. I've never seen one of those tight jeans-wearing, indie-music-loving, movie-I've-never-even-heard-of-quoting assholes (A. Parker excluded, of course) wear outdoor performance gear, for instance, and that's an entry on Stuff White People Like. 

(I totally love Gortech)

And while the Wikipedia entry on hipsters cites them as interested in brewing their own beer, and I've certainly heard local hipster types talk about this, I've also heard it from aging boomers in the congregation of St. Andrew Lutheran back in Cape Girardeau -- about as far from hipsterish as one can go.

Have we done a Chistmas song in a while, Neesh? No? Okay. Let's do a Christmas song.

Dustin's Pick: "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

His Reason: "Makes me cry sometimes on the line, "The hopes and fears of all the years/Are met in thee tonight." That's a lot to put on a baby. And don't get me wrong, it's not like "O Holy Night," which makes me cry every time, but still, not too shabby. 

Neesha's Pick!: Well. Mine is actually in the same vein as Fi's. "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear"

Reason: It's just super pretty and, perhaps, a nod to my future number one pick!