A smart friend has been soliciting thoughts on this piece in Adbusters on the cultural vapidity of the hipster genus. Well, I’m about to head to the hipster Mecca of Portland, Ore., so I really don’t want to spoil the fun by reading the whole thing. But a quick skim convinces me that the writer never figured out the difference between “cool” and “interesting.” There have always been hipsters, cool kids, whatever, who don’t put much thought into saying something revolutionary, even though they look the part. Don’t romanticize the hippies or the beats or the jazz generation. Plenty of them were boring posers too. If you think I’m overreacting, read the article’s kicker:

We are a lost generation, desperately clinging to anything that feels real, but too afraid to become it ourselves. We are a defeated generation, resigned to the hypocrisy of those before us, who once sang songs of rebellion and now sell them back to us. We are the last generation, a culmination of all previous things, destroyed by the vapidity that surrounds us. The hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new.

Grow up! Have a Pabst and flirt with one of those girls in big fake glasses. I bet she tells funny fart jokes.