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The Devolution from Hipster to Hippie in 6 Steps

By Paul Hiebert on

No counter/subculture exists in a vacuum, and hipsters are no exception. Bearded, free-loving hippies are the forefathers of cool to the mustached, slim-jeaned youth of today. The following graphic shows how easy it is for the modern hipster to regress back to the 1960s, when hope for a better society abounded and the word ‘irony’ wasn’t employed as a shield to hide behind when someone accused you of actually liking something. We wonder what the female version of this would look like…



[via BuzzFeed]

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[...] The Devolution from Hipster to Hippie in 6 Steps [...]

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Forget "forefathers" ex-Hippies ARE the FATHERS of most "modern" hipsters!

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uhhh hippies are NOT hipsters... not at all... There just aren't many hippies left. They are mostly isolated to the west coast, parts of new england and desert southwest. Otherwise they are virtually non existent in most major cities. Hippies are great people, not all smoke pot or use drugs. That is media spin to quiet down the movement. It goes against anti capitalistic USA. Hipsters are more akin to a "cool" version of a yuppie, certainly following trends, just as yuppies do.

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And by the way - do these people deserve an award for speaking a second language like half of the other world? If you meet an immigrant to the USA that speaks a second language you say, "Your English is so good" and look at them like they're stupid. For an American who speaks a second language, it's like you think they should get an Oscar for best Second Language Speaker. Tutoring kids: It sounds like you know more than one person who speaks a second language and tutors kids. Again, that's about half of the industrialized world. Should I start making trophies?

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"They volunteer to tutor kids, and a lot of them speak a second language. They read. They work at all the non-corporate places that give our town character, and they make the town run, mostly on minimum wage." So by they, you mean "not you" apparently. So that means 'you', whoever you are is out of the picture. As for 'they': Great to hear that a group of young people smokes so much pot that they don't have the balls to achieve anything greater than minimum wage and are happy being at the bottom of the capitalistic pyramid supporting all the people who decided to get degrees and aim for something a little higher than "local video store guy" or "coffee shop girl". You realize that the pyramid wouldn't function unless there were no-aspiration people like them? Somebody needs to do the 'servin to have other people do the 'takin. But I'm sure you're on your hazardous waste filled laptop in a cafe somewhere feeling really good about yourself and looking down on everyone else out there who are working at jobs like Taco Bell and McDonalds workers, totally brainwashed out of their minds but think they're true Americans. We all think we're real good. Well news flash - we're about the same. Get over yourself and your ironic beard.

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At least there's hope after high school nerdiness: Become either a hipster or hippie and pretend you were cool all along.

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I literally watched this happen to a kid I went to high school with. Believe it or not, after full hippie status has been attained, they slowly revert back to their hipster origins.... VERY SLOWLY....

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Hippies or hipsters doesn't matter - both are wankers and live in a continual state of feigned overconfidence and inner insecurity; they gather in Portland and feed off each other's weird vibes, desperation and ineffectual behaviour.

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not to be a hipster, but vera, check ur kerouac facts. He's like my fav. author, in all seriousness. Beat came from a conversation with John C Holmes. Research never judges.

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Vera, Laudyms is right, "Beat generation" types never called themselves "beatniks." That term was coined by Herb Caen and represented an insulting caricature of SF hipsters. And Kerouac didn't take "beat" from Burroughs--it was coined by Herbert Huncke, and Kerouac ran with it.

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First off... I think people are dealing with two sets of denotations and connotations for "Hipster" and "Hippie." To recap: The original, self-proclaimed "hipsters" circa. '55 (now remembered as "beatniks"), and hippies circa '68 are not the subject of this illustration. It's about contemporary young people: "Hipster" is kind of a dismissive slur for a certain demographic, and that demographic only appropriates it ironically. Hippies are still kind of hippies; there's just a new generation. And the illustration is funny. However, I always sort of wonder who these "hipsters" are, exactly... I know a lot of people who look like them, and VERY few who fit Goat's (pretentious) analysis. If being a hipster is simply based on aesthetics--say, wearing tight jeans, having quirky facial hair, and simultaneously owning an iPod and being kind of obsessed with records-- well, people like Goat should know the following: I work at an in independent movie house and bar that is pretty much claimed by people who share this aesthetic. They make films, art, and music. They volunteer to tutor kids, and a lot of them speak a second language. They read. They work at all the non-corporate places that give our town character, and they make the town run, mostly on minimum wage. They don't take themselves too seriously. They joke about being cynical, but are mostly pretty idealistic. The guys behind the bar are kind--every bit as nice to the small cadre of elderly regulars as they are to the "beautiful people" So, Goat, I'm sure these aren't the vacuous poseurs you were talking about. Must be somebody else. Maybe you shouldn't be so shallow...

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you people all suck with your words, and your stereotypes.

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I'm sorry, but the Beat Generation was self inaugerated. Kerouac took the term directly from Burroughs' naked lunch and explained that the term is significant in a variety of ways: it is derived from the word beatific, it alludes to the jazz-esque quality of their literary works (free form with a beat, if you will, kept by a repetition of words as in Howl or America or internal rhyme...etc.), and by the fact that Beat writers claimed to be 'beat' or run-down by the pressures of a conformist society. I'm sorry to digress, I'm just find this to be an interesting tidbit.

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hahahahahaha goat sucks.

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I have to agree with Dvy here. Hipsters are poseur ego driven icon chasers. They have been marketed to and created by media as a counter-cultural idiom. They are the uber-ironic creations of a mass media campaign to display the "anti" message of culture, but the real humor is not that the "hipsters" are being ironic it's that the capitalist machine has created these unaware belligerent symbols of irony. Even further, these hipsters are just feeding into the machine that they "pretend" to loathe because they are unaware they have even been manufactured by the system. Hippies are on the other hand, living their own values and morals that they have understood and not been sold. You CAN'T devolve from the lowest life form (hipster) to a more true form of feral humanity. I mean, that's like my opinion man.

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epic chest beard. the best. you know brooklyn! the hipsters ARE hippies

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So I was talking to an actual hippie yesterday, giving him hell about turning perfectly good bikes into fixies, because only pretentious hipsters actually ride the things. He said, "Hey, man. Hipsters spread the bread way more than aging ideologues." He's right; trendy and annoying they may be but hipsters spend cash we aging hippies just don't have, or care to spend.

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ok...well maybe neo-hippie is a better term.

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Most real 'hipsters' (they never called themselves beatniks) would be in their 70s or 80s by now. Has the term been recycled? And Old Guy is slam-on: Hippies were one of the most mis-represented groups going, especially by Hollywood and the media.

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the comments are far more interesting and important then the actually image...or all encompassing makes it more relevant...ha ha ha ha ha luv it!

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Drum circles and dreadlocks were not prevalent in the 60's, and believe it or not, most "hippies" were not dirty.

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You can make a diagram that's virtually the same with beatniks turning into hippies (which actually happened). Look at a picture of Allen Ginsberg from the 50's and then at a pic of him from the 60's.

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Step six looks like the infamous 'Feral'

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Obviously drawn by a hipster. A hippie would've replaced "disaffected" with "self-consciously nonchalant", "v-neck" with "fake vintage", and "tight" with "my-friends-think-they're-cool-so-they-must-be". Since a hipster is basically a poseur, is he authentic enough to devolve? I doubt it.

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i almost agree. there are neo-hippies. fitting somewhere between environmentalist-and clashing libertarian and socialist ideas- neo hippies still listen to jam music, still do drugs, still are against the war man, and still dance like crazy children. the hipster is a tributary probably more closely linked to punk/alternative music. but yes, there are major similarities

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  1. Celebrity Gossip, Get It Here First! says:
    May 28, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    [...] The Devolution from Hipster to Hippie in 6 Steps [...]