Flannels and Avocado Toast and Hipsters, Oh My!

The secret is out: hipsters are not the individuals they so dream to be. All their craft beer, funky and folky music, flannels, and vintage tees, although are now trendy, were not created by the individual. Instead the hipster phenomena has always been shared amongst many people, and now even welcomed into pop culture.

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In the same way hipsters aren’t true individuals, voters do not choose a candidate based solely on their own opinions. We often “think about them (opinions) as the property of the individual citizen”, making it seem as if it is impossible for them to be influenced by any sort of outside party (61). People influence other people. Our political or moral beliefs are a “key way people identify themselves as a part of communities and publics,” (61). Whether a party member or unaffiliated, we are likely to vote based on what we know about the candidates, but the odds of everyone being the “informed voter” is unlikely. We are not going to take the time to deeply educate ourselves on both candidates to gather the knowledge to make the proper decision. Instead, we rely on parties or values, shared with other people, to make our decision. An activity known for its extremely physical privacy and isolation is “the most common practice Americans engage in, and signal their membership in, a collective public” (71).

A voter deciding between two candidates using only her own opinion is just as likely as a hipster admitting that she is a part of greater community and plays a role in mainstream culture. I hate to break it to you, hipsters, but you are not the only people who like nifty little coffee shops with avocado toast.