Opinion of "intellectual indie hack" style liberals

[Donerail]

So these individuals talk about obscure authors to make themselves think that they're smart, talk like Tumblr, have hypocritical spending habits, are irritatingly pretentious and not that politically involved unless Obama. Where are the redeeming qualities?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Where are the redeeming qualities?

There are none.

[courts]

so basically bill maher and his fan base. hp obvsly

[Cassius]

Easy to wind up...

[Velasco]

-Love to listen to pretentious independent music (hence my "scene", common there), go to pretentious indie movies, reject anything "mainstream", etc.

It's just curiosity. Could you name some "pretentious" indie bands? I suspect I might like some of them, unless they are too new. I've been somewhat disconnected in the last 2/3 years and focused on late 70s/ early 80s bands and older stuff (outside mainstream, needless to say). A couple of years ago, I used to hate all "mainstream" music. Nowadays I can enjoy Like A Virgin , only because I'm so cool, etcetera. I've always hated words like "scene", on the other hand, and have little patience with snobs, unless I find other qualities in such persons to compensate their elitist arrogance

[Associate Justice PiT]

     These people are what is wrong with America.

[angus]

     These people are what is wrong with America.

I'm glad somebody finally said it.

[Velasco]

     These people are what is wrong with America.

I think religious lunatics and gun enthusiasts are more important groups, demographically speaking, and I think something's going really wrong with them. If "intelectual indie hack style liberals" exist as a statistical classification, they are for sure a tiny minority. Even if they are annoying, misguided or whatever,  I don't think they represent a significant disturbance for the country as a whole.

[Peter the Lefty]

Didn't read the part about still supporting the Democrats.  HP's, then.

[TJ in Oregon]

Sounds a lot like the Atlas Forum

[Lief 🗽]

Obama supporters are automatic ffs

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

so basically bill maher and his fan base. hp obvsly

couldn't be further from the truth. bill maher is neckbeard/reddit porn.

BRTD's amateur anthropology only applies to a very, very, very select demographic that can only be encountered in large numbers in a few neighborhoods in a few cities. It's also specific to a generation that came of age when President Bush was still in office. BRTD's characterization of this demographic is unfair: no one in this subculture shies away from the "mainstream" because it is mainstream but for aesthetic reasons. BRTD never fails to make preferences for underground/cutting edge culture seem snobby, decadent and despicable.

[they don't love you like i love you]

-Love to listen to pretentious independent music (hence my "scene", common there), go to pretentious indie movies, reject anything "mainstream", etc.

It's just curiosity. Could you name some "pretentious" indie bands? I suspect I might like some of them, unless they are too new. I've been somewhat disconnected in the last 2/3 years and focused on late 70s/ early 80s bands and older stuff (outside mainstream, needless to say). A couple of years ago, I used to hate all "mainstream" music. Nowadays I can enjoy Like A Virgin , only because I'm so cool, etcetera. I've always hated words like "scene", on the other hand, and have little patience with snobs, unless I find other qualities in such persons to compensate their elitist arrogance

The type of bands I'm thinking of? You probably wouldn't like them. I'm thinking of artsy (real) emo/hardcore, ala Orchid, Ampere, This Ship Will Sink, The Assistant, Instil, Wrong Day to Quit, You and I, Funeral Diner, Staircase, Under a Dying Sun...oh yeah most of that is actually about ten years old now, wow.

[they don't love you like i love you]

so basically bill maher and his fan base. hp obvsly

couldn't be further from the truth. bill maher is neckbeard/reddit porn.

Absolutely.

BRTD's amateur anthropology only applies to a very, very, very select demographic that can only be encountered in large numbers in a few neighborhoods in a few cities.

Very true.

It's also specific to a generation that came of age when President Bush was still in office.

I'll concede this as well. "Write what you know" and all that.

BRTD's characterization of this demographic is unfair: no one in this subculture shies away from the "mainstream" because it is mainstream but for aesthetic reasons. BRTD never fails to make preferences for underground/cutting edge culture seem snobby, decadent and despicable.

I think this is an effect of being in something for so long you often fail to realize how some things that are taken for granted might sound on the outside.

But my statement about "reject anything "mainstream"" was an oversimplification that could easily come across the wrong way, and in all fairness not entirely accurate either. I don't think there's anything snobby about the type of attitude in refusing to even give a chance to the Transformers movies for example. Actually just think of how fond these types are of The AV Club and you have a pretty good summary of media tastes there.

[Velasco]

The type of bands I'm thinking of? You probably wouldn't like them. I'm thinking of artsy (real) emo/hardcore, ala Orchid, Ampere, This Ship Will Sink, The Assistant, Instil, Wrong Day to Quit, You and I, Funeral Diner, Staircase, Under a Dying Sun...oh yeah most of that is actually about ten years old now, wow.

Oh well, I've never been into 'real' (artsy) emo/hardcore and some bands you mention -except Orchid, Under a Dying Sun and Staircase- are unknown to me. Anyway I have couple of friends who like that kind of stuff and I could ask them. Maybe those bands are pretentious, or it's just that I can't connect. You realize that emo/hardcore fans are only a tiny fraction of the indie crowd, right?

Btw, to me 'real' hardcore (obvsly not 'emo') is Fugazi, a prehistoric band that I might have never heard but -oddly enough- I know people interested in "the scene".

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Emo/hardcore is marginalia in the wider world of "indie" or "underground" music.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Fugazi is not hardcore.

The members came from influential real emo bands Rites of Spring and Embrace.

[traininthedistance]

As seems to be the case far too often, DeadFlagBlues is the only poster talking any sense in this thread.  

Anyway, to the extent that this "type" even exists (obviously certain of the traits identified in the OP are commonly overlapping, but the post as a whole is oddly overspecific to say the least), they're lean FF.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Yeah it's overspecific, but the main reason I made this poll (and the details about music and whatnot are only because that's where I see this sort of thing the most, I'll admit it most certainly exists outside my scene) is the combination of the rhetoric that would be considered "far left", yet the extreme hackery for the Democratic Party and militant opposition against anyone who ever proposes voting otherwise. Though as EMD pointed out this is kind of just a trait of anyone who came of age in the George W. Bush presidency for obvious reasons.

[Velasco]

Fugazi is not hardcore.

The members came from influential real emo bands Rites of Spring and Embrace.

My apologies, I mixed up 'hardcore' and 'emocore'. Those labels are nasty and you're the expert in the "scene".

Seriously, rhetoric on 'gender oppression' and corporation abuses may sound 'far left', but I think they are, to some extent, a commonplace among all type of 'progressives' in the Western World. On the other hand, I guess what you mean referring to certain Obama hackery and the love for technologic gadgets. I don't see anything bad in supporting Obama; likely I'd vote for him, even when he's too moderate hero for me. Ridiculous hackery, empty rhetoric, i-phones and the like sound in this case just as fashionable (trendy) accessories of a very colorful and specific subculture but, as people says, they may be extensive to a wider group of trendy progressives.

[You kip if you want to...]

HP.

The British equivalent would be a blend between Owen Jones and someone who voted LibDem at the last election.

[they don't love you like i love you]

You SHOULD listen to Fugazi. And those other two bands.

And I agree with the second paragraph very much. Remember those traits all very much apply to me.

[Cory]

People with all or most of these characteristics--and yes, I know exactly the type you mean--are really insufferable, although people with only some of them can be bigger FFs than people with none (depending, obviously, on which ones). Voted HP.

[tik 🪀✨]

Anyone who says things like "What bands do I like? Oh, you probably wouldn't like them.." is an insufferable douche. Yeah, I may admire some qualities of the people you describe, even embody some, but I hate the narcissism and hypocrisy. That's partly because I see that snotty elitism in myself and have been called out on it. The way we can judge others based on their consumption habits is intellectually lazy and is kind of parallel with other prejudices we lambast in right-wingers.

[ingemann]

so basically bill maher and his fan base. hp obvsly

couldn't be further from the truth. bill maher is neckbeard/reddit porn.

BRTD's amateur anthropology only applies to a very, very, very select demographic that can only be encountered in large numbers in a few neighborhoods in a few cities. It's also specific to a generation that came of age when President Bush was still in office. BRTD's characterization of this demographic is unfair: no one in this subculture shies away from the "mainstream" because it is mainstream but for aesthetic reasons. BRTD never fails to make preferences for underground/cutting edge culture seem snobby, decadent and despicable.

Maybe because it is.