I’ve been laughing at people who insist they are expressing their individuality, by looking exactly like every other hipster doofus on the block, for decades.
The first dope who gaged his earlobes, grew a wooly beard, wore horn rimmed glasses and a wool cap was, at least, an individualist. The hundreds of thousands that followed were unoriginal, unimaginative sheeple who are walking monuments to banality. They make it easier to understand why at this moment socialism is “a thing.” Socialism is the skinny jeans of politics.
The guy in the following clip, from Impractical Jokers, really cracked me up. I give him points for being painfully self-aware of his pathetic conformity.
The following is a hilarious story about conformists believing they are individualists.
Normally a headline like “The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same” would elicit much rolling of eyes here at Vulture Towers.
However, it becomes more intriguing when one learns that the hypothesis described in the article was tested by a series of hilarious post-publication events that then further bolstered the paper’s findings.
At the end of February, MIT Technology Review emitted a pithy rundown of a 34-page research paper from maths-modelling boffins at Brandeis University in the US; the paper essentially posited that in a bid to make that all-important “countercultural statement”, hipsters can end up looking alike. For groovy models of how random acts by hipsters “undergo a phase transition into a synchronized state” – along with some knotty network equations – see here [PDF].
Accompanying the article was an edited stock image of a generic millennial chap in plaid shirt and standard-issue beanie, or “trendy winter attire”, as Getty put it.
The MIT journal’s editor-in-chief, Gideon Lichfield, took to Twitter to tell a “cautionary tale” about what followed the article going live:
“We promptly got a furious email from a man who said he was the guy in the photo that ran with the story. He accused us of slandering him, presumably by implying he was a hipster, and of using the pic without his permission. (He wasn’t too complimentary about the story, either.)”
What’s the money shot of this story?
It turns out the guy who was furious that his picture was used wasn’t the guy in the picture.
It was a look-alike “individualist” hipster doofus !
lol
ht/ Uncle Al
They smell the same too. I hate em. If you want to see them in full bloom mating season, visit any Startbutts.
I quit being the fisherman in the Gortons commercials, but I still do like to carry cans of anchovies in my pants….it attracts a lot of pussy….
This is the photo that ISN’T of the guy who complained that the photo was used without his permission.
You simply can’t make this sh!t up!
Hey, you haven’t shaved and haven’t showered so you throw a winter cap on and parade around the city yes you are the crust of the earth. And you smell like crusty-butt!
Starbucks? Try a Manhattan train! These guys are all over the place when it’s standing room only and tight. They smell.
Meerkat
I’ve been known to chase these bastards out of my gym. Well, not me alone. I have a pretty good crew. The old Dog Lifters.
@Brad, is it the hygiene? Those dirty folks going in and messing up your equipment? Or was it them just not taking care of the equipment?
Meerkat
They’re all Libtards, and they all have really weak wrists. And yes, we are assholes. But it’s important to know, we are not rude. LOL
I remember back in the ’90’s when all those Californians “discovered” Seattle. The first thing they’d do (after throwing their out-of-state license plates in a dumpster) was to go to Eddie Bauer and get “outfitted” in head to toe “Northwest.” Then they’d try to blend in. It was hysterical seeing them in the local grocery stores, laughing at the geoducks, taking pictures (this was before smart phones) of themselves holding them up to the camera. They looked like extras off the set of “Here Come The Brides”. You could always tell a Californian; they were very self-conscious of their “Northwest” “Look”. Always checking themselves out in anything that reflected. It’s been downhill from there.
(I always wanted to ask one of them if they had a chainsaw to go with their outfit.)
I want to be different like everybody else.
Tats, wispy beards, soccer shirts….torn jeans, sucking up lattke’s at Starbucks….into comics and computer games….usually skinny little white boys.
Most are queer, or thinking about it.
A sportswriter at WashPo was mentioning, favorably, about the “Hipster” in the next cube who had a hard-on for the World Cup when it was here a few years ago.
AA
With all due respect, You’re way short on Californians. Libtards are Libtards no matter where you find them. Take a minute a realize how many states blame there demise on those nasty Californians. We have one hell of a population. Where was Kurt Cobain born? I think your short a couple million people.
Quote from the signature at the bottom of every email that I send:
Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.
Reflections on the Human Condition, aph. 50 (1973)
Eric Hoffer
@ AbigailAdams MARCH 6, 2019 AT 11:18 PM
Seattle attracts…. God, I don’t know what to call them, but they are pathetic. About fifteen years ago I would go to meetings in Seattle and there were droves of nutters hanging out in Seattle decked out like they were headed out to scale the Matterhorn. I shit you not, the bastards dressed up like the Goddamn manikins at REI just to go out and buy a cup of coffee.
They couldn’t have looked any more ridiculous if they had on a rubber nose and pair of big red shoes. It always been that way in Seattle. The motif changes but the herd mentality is constant.
A few years back they were all about beard oil and CC Filson all the time, that was when they all simultaneously went through the lumberjerk phase. We referred to them as either lumberjerks or as lumberjackoffs.
They are faux lumberjacks and they’re not OK.
I blame the look on Mike Nesmith, the original hipster apparently.
Right now, there are a bunch of 45-50 year old women with butterfly tramp stamps that are transforming into moths.
And I blame the one-hit wonder Crazy Town for sampling the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Pretty Little Ditty”.
The get-up is their badge of conformity.
It’s just a Lemming thing… not only that, but these tards will tell you how proud they are of their individualism as they all march in lock-step to the edge of the cliff.
BB — And with the same due respect, dear friend: At peak migration in the late ’90’s, 2,500 – 3,000 Californians were relocating to the Puget Sound every single week! It was so bad that on the Eastside (Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, etc.) were up in arms over how they were going to stretch their infrastructures — utilities, roads, etc. — to accommodate them. Native Washingtonians were extremely upset over the cost of having to do that. Housing prices shot through the roof because people moving from southern CA and the Bay Area were paying ridiculous prices for homes here after cashing out their overpriced homes down south. They were buying up all the dearly-priced waterfront and entire islands in the San Juans and then putting up fences to keep everyone off “their beach!”, not understanding that no one here ever thought of the beaches as their private preserve. Then, when they detected a less-than-warm embrace from the natives, they set up their own “crisis” telephone hotline so that they could call and weep to each other about how they didn’t feel welcomed and complained to each other about “Seattle Nice.”* They drove like maniacs, were loud, obnoxious and selfish, and — worst of all — they flaunted. THAT was never a characteristic of Seattle! No sir. Back in the good old days, pauper sat next to prince on the bus, the lunch counter and the (then-affordable) baseball game, and if you were doing it right, no one could tell if you were a fisherman or a financier.
Look it up. Cobain came much later.
*Seattle Nice: A habit peculiar to the Northwest region of the U.S. whereby one expresses impeccable manners in public and exudes a friendly persona to visitors but, driven by a keen sense of privacy, would never invite you to join their circle until they have known you very well for at least five years. Syn: Stand-offish.
And I would add that natives are absolutely appalled at the spectacle of Californians “baring their souls”, i.e. sharing the most intimate details of their pathetic lives, in a public place — to strangers, no less! It’s as though they never heard of the concept of “quiet dignity.”
I wear real actual Carhartt logging jeans a good part of the winter. They’re doubled up on the front of the thighs and knees, tough and comfortable.
A month or two ago, I figured I should get another pair or two into the rotation. That’s when I found out Carhartt wasn’t making them anymore, well at least not the originals.
So I did a little research into the exact sku number of the ones I want and looked for retailers stock. That’s when I stumbled upon all the Amazon reviews for the jeans.
About nearly half of the reviews were dudes bitching about the bagginess of the original fit jeans. These were followed by a bunch of complaints about the suspender studs around the waistband. Apparently, a bunch of fashionistas were upset their legs weren’t accentuated enough and the suspender studs were too numerous. As if anyone would notice!
The left is The Borg.
Showing us how fantastic conformity to the collective is.
JDHasty — Except it wasn’t “always that way” in Seattle. 30 years ago, if you were wandering around downtown Seattle in a flannel shirt, a stocking cap and sported a beard, some polite Seattleite would help you find the #13 (or sometimes the #46) bus to Ballard; carefully explaining that you didn’t have to deposit your fare until you reached your destination and to sit toward the front in the Free Ride zone.
See, the thing about Seattle, back when it was God’s Country, is that there was no herd mentality. That came to us when Microsoft and — somewhat later — Amazon, Starbucks, and the rest of them recruited everyone, first from California, whose average age was about 30, to our beloved Northwestern hideaway. Our ridiculous hope was that they’d all live and work in Redmond or that the rain would eventually drive them out.
We were the land of Stan Boreson, a baseball team that sucked (and we loved them despite that), a horrible football stadium, a city of distinct neighborhoods, corny local tee vee shows and insider jokes that you could never explain to an outsider. Back then, Portland was jealous of us for being more conservative than they were — and, brother, that’s damn conservative. Conservatives don’t go around in herds.
The scary part is I have a picture of myself when I was in my early 20’s looking just like that from back in the mid 70’s. But then again I have always worn flannel shirts since I was a kid and still wear them and blue jeans. I don’t conform just for the sake of being like everyone else and have always marched to a different drummer, maybe that’s why I’m a conservative. Of course living in farm country and logging country as well as mining country and hunting and fishing and outdoors country also has a lot to do with it. We used to call all the fake wannabe loggers stump bumpers especially the greenie tree hugging ones.
From a John Hartford song from the 1960’s.
“What’s the difference being different When it’s difference now that looks alike.”
Makes it easier to I D the freaks and weirdos when they basically wear the same uniform.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3du0mb4FDpQ
I loved listening to John Hartford back in the day, I haven’t heard any of his music in years, good stuff Maynard.
This individualist millenial look-a-likes is addressed in this Parody Commercial for Chevy. It’s hillarious.
This guy inserts himself into real Chevy commercials and destroys them. He really hates Chevy’s
They’re in Las Vegas, too! Wearing those damn beenies in 114 degree weather. And you know what’s under it? A man bun.
FFS!!!
Stop being a costume!
I could never understand why these idiots wear wool watch caps when it’s hot outside. And the chances of me ever having a mun (man bun) are zero since I have a bald head.
Lack of originality is a hallmark of commies since Marx and Lenin they have invented nothing new….
Beta males are to pussified to be original, they are a bee colony …hive mind
BTW Fur our script loading is being consistently throttled by Google, and hit with redirects constantly just so you know. I tested this against the Daiky Beast which loads 4x faster than IOTW without redurects….go figure
AA – that brings to mind a Monty Python song about ‘Lumberjacks’.
Some peoole cant stop rebelling against their parents. So they join a club.
“Individuals” for socialism – – yeah, right.
L.L. Bean used to be a good source of outdoors products and clothing.
These idiots ruined that brand. Look at the catalog now.
Jethro — They ruin everything they touch. Used to be a (paper) card-carrying member of R.E.I. when Unsoeld was still on the board. Their warehouse/store was on Capitol Hill in an 1800’s barn of a building and you could get everything you needed for outdoor stuff. Now they’re an upscale, over-priced, run-of-the-mill outfit that sells brand logos. Same thing happened to Aberacrombie and Fitch. Now Filsson.
I’m with Old Oaks. I get my pants and shirts at the welding supply store and my “wool cap” from Auto Zone. It says STP.
The Ford one seems to piss people off.
too
By the way, there are at least three usages of the word 2, two, to, too….. umm maybe four, fore, 4….WTF?