AnotherRoute
Just another post by
What I am saying is they aren’t from Brooklyn so they should not be considered Brooklyn hipsters. They were racist raised in racist environments and moved to NY.
I can’t move to LA and start claiming Watts.
A lot of the alt-right/modern fascism started from the Brooklyn Hipster scene
- Thread starter ☑︎#VoteDemocrat
- Start date
I can’t move to LA and start claiming Watts.
The Need for Pretension
The Need for Pretension. On hipsterism and the avoidance of death
Authentic identity is hard to come by these days. Messages ambush us from every corner of our lives, reassuring us that consumption is the true path to authenticity. Our advertisements urge us to salvage our identities with products and the ideologies which accompany them; our social media platforms validate those who consume and isolate those who do not consume enough. Universities and YouTube ideologues alike propagate the consumption of knowledge as a promise of meaning; of a fulfilled identity. Despite the power of these messages, implicit as they may be, there exists a confused sense of individualism rampant in our late-capitalist society. The rise of mental illnesses rooted in deficient self-esteem, such as depression and eating disorders, speak to the identity crises of contemporary times. In the fast-paced era of seemingly unbridled choice, the individual struggles to fashion a coherent identity (both internally and externally) and thus succumbs to problems of ambivalence and mental illness. However, one cultural phenomenon exhibits particular strength in overcoming these problems of a chiefly misguided Western populace, though its proponents are likely unaware of this strength.
Hipsterism is broadly a response to the difficulty of consolidating identity in today’s world of consumption and hyper-individualization. This socio-cultural phenomenon addresses identity crises that appear as a direct consequence of late-capitalist ideology and institutions; only, these crises are resolved not through dismantling the current system, but by orchestrating new conspicuously capitalist identities.
Before I delve any deeper into the rabbit hole of social and psychological theory, it is imperative that I define the terrifying abstraction (I’ll explain why it’s terrifying shortly) which I will use throughout this essay. Identity, as defined by the psychologist Peter Weinreich, is a continuity of self-construal: self-construal referring to how we perceive ourselves, and continuity referring to a union between our past, current, and future selves. This notion of continuity is vitally important for our construction and maintenance of self-esteem, and once we have an understanding of this, it becomes clear why authenticity is so lacking and sought-after today. The environmental concerns of the contemporary West threaten the self-construed continuity of many individuals. For instance, climate change threatens the future self with inevitable destruction; third wave feminism and LGBTQ activism threatens the past self with changing moral/social codes; deindustrialization threatens the current self with its disruption of working-class identity, et cetera. The quest for authenticity, then, is a uniquely human one, as only humans can (and must) operate intertemporally.
I have previously defined the hipster as “an individual of the late-capitalist period, characterized by ironic consumption habits and a quest for authenticity”. This definition of hipsters allows us to view hipsterism as a product of the human/cultural tendency to magnify the salience of identity.
Ironic consumption is a staple of hipster identity.
Needless to say, most people believe that identity is real. We build our identities on the supposition that identity is what makes us who we are; therefore, it must be real! Of course, self-construal is just that — how can our reality be truly real if we are the ones construing it? Furthermore, if our own realities are real and we are the ones construing them, then surely we must be gods to have that magical ability! Obviously, we are not gods; we are immortal animals who defecate and chase our fantasies until the sand in our hourglass becomes a motionless pile. Identity is a lie so crucial that allows us to live with tranquility: the very nature of having a symbolic self negates our animality altogether, and thus offers us salvation from the constant terror that is the knowledge of our inevitable death. Psychoanalysts Robert Brown and Sándor Ferenczi, as well as cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, have all argued the case for ‘character as a vital lie’ brilliantly, and I would recommend looking at these theorists for more clarity and insight on the matter. The essence of identity is found in the fact that “man lives by lying to himself about himself and about his world” (Becker, 1973, 51). Without the vital lie of character, humans are faced with the reality of our condition. When this lie breaks down, it leads to psychoses such as schizophrenia, where the individual cannot partialize the reality of their condition with identity, thus regressing into a purely internal state. Alternatively, neuroses such as obsessive-compulsive disorder occur, whereby one can control his external environment through a self-created world of compulsion (by partializing too much). Thus, we desperately need an identity as our protection against the terror of reality; as a means of self-preservation. In late-capitalism where identity is uncertain and eroded (especially in terms of post-colonial ethnic identity), a cultural phenomenon such as hipsterism which solidifies the integral lie of identity is entirely justifiable under the pretense of terror management.
This discussion of the human condition has led to the confirmation that identity is fundamental to our navigation of life with equanimity. Without it, human life is virtually impossible. In light of this psychoanalytic revelation arrived at by some of the greatest minds of the 20th century, we can now discuss how hipsters fashion identity to distract from “the real” (in the Lacanian sense; beyond the symbolic and outside the imaginary). Hipsters are not original in their simultaneous focus on identity and ignorance of animality; all cultures stem from this duality (I cannot get into this theory here, but I will once again refer the reader to Becker). The reason culture exists is to transcend animality; to organize as symbolic beings and to find comfort in the ready-made meanings and roles of society.
Though hipsters pride themselves on and are well known for ascribing to a higher standard of culture (a polite way of saying “snobbery”), they are quite visible in Kierkegaard’s description of the Philistine who is “a something included along with “the other” in the compass of the temporal and the worldly”. He continues “Thus the self coheres immediately with “the other”, wishing, desiring, enjoying, et cetera, but passively; […] he manages to imitate the other men, noting how they manage to live, and so he too lives after a sort. [He] does not recognize his self, he recognizes himself only by his dress […] he recognizes that he has a self only by externals” (Kierkegaard, 1849, 184–187). He also notes poignantly that “Philistinism tranquilizes itself in the trivial” (Kierkegaard, 1849, 174–175).
The Need for Pretension. On hipsterism and the avoidance of death
Authentic identity is hard to come by these days. Messages ambush us from every corner of our lives, reassuring us that consumption is the true path to authenticity. Our advertisements urge us to salvage our identities with products and the ideologies which accompany them; our social media platforms validate those who consume and isolate those who do not consume enough. Universities and YouTube ideologues alike propagate the consumption of knowledge as a promise of meaning; of a fulfilled identity. Despite the power of these messages, implicit as they may be, there exists a confused sense of individualism rampant in our late-capitalist society. The rise of mental illnesses rooted in deficient self-esteem, such as depression and eating disorders, speak to the identity crises of contemporary times. In the fast-paced era of seemingly unbridled choice, the individual struggles to fashion a coherent identity (both internally and externally) and thus succumbs to problems of ambivalence and mental illness. However, one cultural phenomenon exhibits particular strength in overcoming these problems of a chiefly misguided Western populace, though its proponents are likely unaware of this strength.
Hipsterism is broadly a response to the difficulty of consolidating identity in today’s world of consumption and hyper-individualization. This socio-cultural phenomenon addresses identity crises that appear as a direct consequence of late-capitalist ideology and institutions; only, these crises are resolved not through dismantling the current system, but by orchestrating new conspicuously capitalist identities.
Before I delve any deeper into the rabbit hole of social and psychological theory, it is imperative that I define the terrifying abstraction (I’ll explain why it’s terrifying shortly) which I will use throughout this essay. Identity, as defined by the psychologist Peter Weinreich, is a continuity of self-construal: self-construal referring to how we perceive ourselves, and continuity referring to a union between our past, current, and future selves. This notion of continuity is vitally important for our construction and maintenance of self-esteem, and once we have an understanding of this, it becomes clear why authenticity is so lacking and sought-after today. The environmental concerns of the contemporary West threaten the self-construed continuity of many individuals. For instance, climate change threatens the future self with inevitable destruction; third wave feminism and LGBTQ activism threatens the past self with changing moral/social codes; deindustrialization threatens the current self with its disruption of working-class identity, et cetera. The quest for authenticity, then, is a uniquely human one, as only humans can (and must) operate intertemporally.
I have previously defined the hipster as “an individual of the late-capitalist period, characterized by ironic consumption habits and a quest for authenticity”. This definition of hipsters allows us to view hipsterism as a product of the human/cultural tendency to magnify the salience of identity.
Ironic consumption is a staple of hipster identity.
Needless to say, most people believe that identity is real. We build our identities on the supposition that identity is what makes us who we are; therefore, it must be real! Of course, self-construal is just that — how can our reality be truly real if we are the ones construing it? Furthermore, if our own realities are real and we are the ones construing them, then surely we must be gods to have that magical ability! Obviously, we are not gods; we are immortal animals who defecate and chase our fantasies until the sand in our hourglass becomes a motionless pile. Identity is a lie so crucial that allows us to live with tranquility: the very nature of having a symbolic self negates our animality altogether, and thus offers us salvation from the constant terror that is the knowledge of our inevitable death. Psychoanalysts Robert Brown and Sándor Ferenczi, as well as cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, have all argued the case for ‘character as a vital lie’ brilliantly, and I would recommend looking at these theorists for more clarity and insight on the matter. The essence of identity is found in the fact that “man lives by lying to himself about himself and about his world” (Becker, 1973, 51). Without the vital lie of character, humans are faced with the reality of our condition. When this lie breaks down, it leads to psychoses such as schizophrenia, where the individual cannot partialize the reality of their condition with identity, thus regressing into a purely internal state. Alternatively, neuroses such as obsessive-compulsive disorder occur, whereby one can control his external environment through a self-created world of compulsion (by partializing too much). Thus, we desperately need an identity as our protection against the terror of reality; as a means of self-preservation. In late-capitalism where identity is uncertain and eroded (especially in terms of post-colonial ethnic identity), a cultural phenomenon such as hipsterism which solidifies the integral lie of identity is entirely justifiable under the pretense of terror management.
This discussion of the human condition has led to the confirmation that identity is fundamental to our navigation of life with equanimity. Without it, human life is virtually impossible. In light of this psychoanalytic revelation arrived at by some of the greatest minds of the 20th century, we can now discuss how hipsters fashion identity to distract from “the real” (in the Lacanian sense; beyond the symbolic and outside the imaginary). Hipsters are not original in their simultaneous focus on identity and ignorance of animality; all cultures stem from this duality (I cannot get into this theory here, but I will once again refer the reader to Becker). The reason culture exists is to transcend animality; to organize as symbolic beings and to find comfort in the ready-made meanings and roles of society.
Though hipsters pride themselves on and are well known for ascribing to a higher standard of culture (a polite way of saying “snobbery”), they are quite visible in Kierkegaard’s description of the Philistine who is “a something included along with “the other” in the compass of the temporal and the worldly”. He continues “Thus the self coheres immediately with “the other”, wishing, desiring, enjoying, et cetera, but passively; […] he manages to imitate the other men, noting how they manage to live, and so he too lives after a sort. [He] does not recognize his self, he recognizes himself only by his dress […] he recognizes that he has a self only by externals” (Kierkegaard, 1849, 184–187). He also notes poignantly that “Philistinism tranquilizes itself in the trivial” (Kierkegaard, 1849, 174–175).
Part 2: The Need for Pretension
This notion of imitation that Kierkegaard suggests is crucial when looking at hipsters as they imitate not only other hipsters but the general culture from which they seek to distance themselves through authentic consumption. Of course, the general culture is made up of immediate-cultural men, who imitate each other as a means to transcend their animal condition. In this regard, the hipster can be seen as a “second-tier Philistine” in his imitation of the immediate-cultural man’s imitation. This meta-imitation explains the common complaint about hipsters attempting to be authentic while resembling every other hipster; the hipster seeks authenticity in the other (i.e. not himself) and externalizes his identity through ironic resemblance to the other. It becomes evident that the hipster is not actually concerned with uniqueness, but with equanimity. If the hipster were genuinely passionate about individuality, he would continuously scrutinize his identity; deconstructing it through introspection and analysis. If he were to do this successfully, he would soon realize the terror of his individuality — that he is not special at all. His character traits would appear as psychoses, his passions as distractions, his worldview as fiction. Individuation horrifies us. The schizoid knows this at the deepest possible level in his awareness of the vital lies of culture and character; he detaches from the external world entirely and lives an internal fantasy. To consolidate an identity, then, is to escape from the death (and life) anxiety that we all experience (no matter how repressed it may be). Thus, the hipster-philistine quite literally tranquilizes himself in the trivial — or else to perish in the dark truth of the human condition.
At this point, it may seem like I’m painting a rather bleak picture of hipsters and humankind in general. And frankly, that assessment would be correct. By making identity the mainstay of their existence, hipsters attempt to resolve the unique dilemma that only a self-conscious animal could have; that fundamentally, our lives are based on the struggle of our symbolic-immortal self against our creaturely-mortal bodies. Hipsters relish in the cultural contrivances that allow them to feel secure in their identities; the material externals that he uses to build his self-construal. In the case of our hipster, these contrivances may come in the form of vinyl records, fair-trade arabica coffee, or oversized flannels from the 60s. Regardless, these objects allow the hipster to externalize his inner self (as we need external validation to confirm our identities) and thus remove himself from his body. He even removes himself, quite ingeniously, from threats to his own mortality. This protection is achieved by appropriating the marginalized “other”, who through progressive policies have earned (at least on the surface level) a higher social standing, which threatens that of the typically white/male hipster. Both through his submersion into culture and his denial of the marginalized other, the hipster secures his so-called authentic individualism (which we now recognize as disguised philistinism) and thus transcends his bodily reality into a purely symbolic being.
Let us now examine how the hipster denies the other to reach his apotheosis.
We can recall from our analysis of Kierkegaard that the hipster-philistine locates himself in the worldly and temporal; both of which represent limitations on the hipster’s scope of existence. So how do hipsters escape these spheres of mortal limitation while simultaneously living in them? By denying the worldly and temporal relevance of the marginalized.Like in Becker’s explanation of the murderer, who finds his immortality in his god-like ability to destroy other lives, the hipster finds his immortality similarly. The hipster deconstructs and devalues cultural lives, reducing them to naught in their sphere of existence.
Hipsters sanitize their realities by erasing ‘the other’, along with the meaning threats they pose.
We can observe the hipster’s appropriation of the working class for more clarity. The hipster sanitizes the image of the working class; ripped jeans become not a symbol of physically taxing labour, but rugged individuality; work boots get dusted off to become shining symbols of fortified self-construal. Even coffee is no longer the brew that keeps the working man alert at his 9 to 5, but a muse into which one imbues his snobberies.In my experience, I have also seen factory uniforms at curated thrift stores, sold at exorbitant prices for the consumer of the working class. Hipsters commonly fetishize the image of the factory, often designing coffee shops or thrift boutiques in post-industrial styles, and using photography as a means to sanitize working-class environments (which I have previously written about, linked below). The hipster’s reduction of the working class to mere image delegitimizes them real people, and thus denies the identity threat that they pose. After all, the working class makes the middle/upper-middle class hipsters uncomfortable (note the hipster preoccupation with craftsmanship, dichotomized against mass production). Those who can afford to be hipsters digest the “authentic” trends of the day, gleefully unattentive of the hidden struggle on the other side of the class divide.
Hipsters reduce gruelling labour to irony, reduce the backbone of the capitalist system (in which they thrive) to empty imagery.
Logically, hipsters are made uncomfortable by the lives of the working class; they are complicit in and benefit from a system that allows the working class to suffer.
https://archive.is/o/IJi6P/https://...rs-arent-as-liberal-as-you-think-aba7bb914efd
Moreover, when the working class suffers through deindustrialization, their death anxiety becomes exposed as they no longer have the cultural means of work in which to distract from their anxiety. Thus to locate the working class in the past, through consumption of vintage working-class clothing and black-and-white post-industrial coffee table books, et cetera, is to deny their current existence and protect oneself from guilt.
In summary, the hipster becomes a “cultural-killer” of sorts as he delegitimizes the working class as real. He thus achieves his apotheosis through absorbing working-class identity into his own; distancing himself from his own temporal and worldly constraints by assuming a quasi-working class image.
We have thus far uncovered the death anxiety that lurks beneath the hipster-philistine’s “authentic individualism”. In an era of eroding cultural identities, the hipster solves the problem of identity consolidation by externalizing of the self and denying the other.
Through ironic consumption and presentation, the hipster maintains an equanimity about life (and his place in the imperial-capitalist system as an upper/middle-class white male). We have discussed how hipsters are not seeking authenticity, but rather for cultural submersion, for safety in the chaos of the human condition. 
The hipster is an imitation of an imitation, and this second-tier philistinism grants him the ability to survive among a multiplicity of contemporary meaning threats
. The hipster’s submissive philistinism creates a perfect window of partialization (to use Otto Rank’s term again). He creates a world with enough scope that he is not limited to hopeless compulsion but limits this scope to exclude the horrifying realities of his existence.
This notion of imitation that Kierkegaard suggests is crucial when looking at hipsters as they imitate not only other hipsters but the general culture from which they seek to distance themselves through authentic consumption. Of course, the general culture is made up of immediate-cultural men, who imitate each other as a means to transcend their animal condition. In this regard, the hipster can be seen as a “second-tier Philistine” in his imitation of the immediate-cultural man’s imitation. This meta-imitation explains the common complaint about hipsters attempting to be authentic while resembling every other hipster; the hipster seeks authenticity in the other (i.e. not himself) and externalizes his identity through ironic resemblance to the other. It becomes evident that the hipster is not actually concerned with uniqueness, but with equanimity. If the hipster were genuinely passionate about individuality, he would continuously scrutinize his identity; deconstructing it through introspection and analysis. If he were to do this successfully, he would soon realize the terror of his individuality — that he is not special at all. His character traits would appear as psychoses, his passions as distractions, his worldview as fiction. Individuation horrifies us. The schizoid knows this at the deepest possible level in his awareness of the vital lies of culture and character; he detaches from the external world entirely and lives an internal fantasy. To consolidate an identity, then, is to escape from the death (and life) anxiety that we all experience (no matter how repressed it may be). Thus, the hipster-philistine quite literally tranquilizes himself in the trivial — or else to perish in the dark truth of the human condition.
At this point, it may seem like I’m painting a rather bleak picture of hipsters and humankind in general. And frankly, that assessment would be correct. By making identity the mainstay of their existence, hipsters attempt to resolve the unique dilemma that only a self-conscious animal could have; that fundamentally, our lives are based on the struggle of our symbolic-immortal self against our creaturely-mortal bodies. Hipsters relish in the cultural contrivances that allow them to feel secure in their identities; the material externals that he uses to build his self-construal. In the case of our hipster, these contrivances may come in the form of vinyl records, fair-trade arabica coffee, or oversized flannels from the 60s. Regardless, these objects allow the hipster to externalize his inner self (as we need external validation to confirm our identities) and thus remove himself from his body. He even removes himself, quite ingeniously, from threats to his own mortality. This protection is achieved by appropriating the marginalized “other”, who through progressive policies have earned (at least on the surface level) a higher social standing, which threatens that of the typically white/male hipster. Both through his submersion into culture and his denial of the marginalized other, the hipster secures his so-called authentic individualism (which we now recognize as disguised philistinism) and thus transcends his bodily reality into a purely symbolic being.
Let us now examine how the hipster denies the other to reach his apotheosis.We can recall from our analysis of Kierkegaard that the hipster-philistine locates himself in the worldly and temporal; both of which represent limitations on the hipster’s scope of existence. So how do hipsters escape these spheres of mortal limitation while simultaneously living in them? By denying the worldly and temporal relevance of the marginalized.
Like in Becker’s explanation of the murderer, who finds his immortality in his god-like ability to destroy other lives, the hipster finds his immortality similarly. The hipster deconstructs and devalues cultural lives, reducing them to naught in their sphere of existence.
Hipsters sanitize their realities by erasing ‘the other’, along with the meaning threats they pose.
We can observe the hipster’s appropriation of the working class for more clarity. The hipster sanitizes the image of the working class; ripped jeans become not a symbol of physically taxing labour, but rugged individuality; work boots get dusted off to become shining symbols of fortified self-construal. Even coffee is no longer the brew that keeps the working man alert at his 9 to 5, but a muse into which one imbues his snobberies.
In my experience, I have also seen factory uniforms at curated thrift stores, sold at exorbitant prices for the consumer of the working class. Hipsters commonly fetishize the image of the factory, often designing coffee shops or thrift boutiques in post-industrial styles, and using photography as a means to sanitize working-class environments (which I have previously written about, linked below). The hipster’s reduction of the working class to mere image delegitimizes them real people, and thus denies the identity threat that they pose. After all, the working class makes the middle/upper-middle class hipsters uncomfortable (note the hipster preoccupation with craftsmanship, dichotomized against mass production). Those who can afford to be hipsters digest the “authentic” trends of the day, gleefully unattentive of the hidden struggle on the other side of the class divide. Hipsters reduce gruelling labour to irony, reduce the backbone of the capitalist system (in which they thrive) to empty imagery. Logically, hipsters are made uncomfortable by the lives of the working class; they are complicit in and benefit from a system that allows the working class to suffer. https://archive.is/o/IJi6P/https://...rs-arent-as-liberal-as-you-think-aba7bb914efd
Moreover, when the working class suffers through deindustrialization, their death anxiety becomes exposed as they no longer have the cultural means of work in which to distract from their anxiety. Thus to locate the working class in the past, through consumption of vintage working-class clothing and black-and-white post-industrial coffee table books, et cetera, is to deny their current existence and protect oneself from guilt.
In summary, the hipster becomes a “cultural-killer” of sorts as he delegitimizes the working class as real. He thus achieves his apotheosis through absorbing working-class identity into his own; distancing himself from his own temporal and worldly constraints by assuming a quasi-working class image.We have thus far uncovered the death anxiety that lurks beneath the hipster-philistine’s “authentic individualism”. In an era of eroding cultural identities, the hipster solves the problem of identity consolidation by externalizing of the self and denying the other.
Through ironic consumption and presentation, the hipster maintains an equanimity about life (and his place in the imperial-capitalist system as an upper/middle-class white male). We have discussed how hipsters are not seeking authenticity, but rather for cultural submersion, for safety in the chaos of the human condition. The hipster is an imitation of an imitation, and this second-tier philistinism grants him the ability to survive among a multiplicity of contemporary meaning threats. The hipster’s submissive philistinism creates a perfect window of partialization (to use Otto Rank’s term again). He creates a world with enough scope that he is not limited to hopeless compulsion but limits this scope to exclude the horrifying realities of his existence.a drinking club... becomes a prominent right wing extremists 
Sbp
Superstar
Jazz posturing ???? I never knew that breh care to elaborate?
That's what it was...we need to focus on the now and future
This thread should be doing numbers
$cam-U-Well_Jack$on
Superstar
Good thread.
Stoicism
Marcus Aurelius
alexander the great
I remember hearing hipster white dudes that saying that being Republican is punk when Trump was President.
Also when Gavin was at the helm of Vice it was racist AF and never featured Black people.
Also when Gavin was at the helm of Vice it was racist AF and never featured Black people.
Unmasked ‘Libs of TikTok’ Creator Claimed She Was at Capitol Riot
A Washington Post exposé reveals the Brooklyn real-estate salesperson behind the influential right-wing account.
www.thedailybeast.com
Chaya Raichik, The woman who runs Libs of TikTok lives in Brooklyn.
She was at the Capitol Riot
And her Twitter account is adding more fuel to the fire after the shooting out here in Colorado Springs.
Hours after Club Q shooting, right-wing account attacks Colorado drag group
The Club Q shooting comes amid a rash of protests, threats and violent assaults against businesses that hosted drag events this year.
www.newsweek.com