On Douchebags [PDF]
I’ve been uncharacteristically curious about what a hipster actually is and this 2009 essay does as good a job as I have yet seen in defining something more nebulous than most things (cf. hipster relativity).
<blockquote> <p>I would argue that hipsterism is a natural and inevitable <br /> backlash against the universalizing forces of capitalism and, <br /> more specifically, advertising. The work of the market is to <br /> widen, to broaden, to debase; to make a product available <br /> (and appealing) to as many people as possible. The hipster is <br /> the latest iteration of a long intellectual tradition which seeks <br /> always to sharpen, to restrict, and to heighten, and which in the <br /> process, invariably fetishes the obscure, the enigmatic, and the <br /> absurd.</p> </blockquote>