Comments on: Colonialism and racism and gentrification and waffles

By: Valenchia

Valenchia — Fri, 02 May 2014 21:46:57 +0000

Why get all upset about this? Really, this is just self-righteous silliness.

By: dangerismycat

dangerismycat — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 05:34:28 +0000

The word ‘hipster’ has been used to mean so many different things that it’s now lost all meaning…so my friends and I started substituting the word ‘smurf’ instead. It conveys the same amount of information (none), but is a lot more fun to say, especially as an adjective. =)

By: of course

of course — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 15:51:51 +0000

You barely scratched the surface with your “research.” There were no “good guys” in the Boer Wars. Britain had concentration camps where they purposefully starved the wives and children of the guerrilla fighters to try and weaken their morale.

de Wiart may have been the illegitimate son of the King of Belgium at the time and was born into aristocracy. While his mother was Irish, she was aristocratic Irish, long since having sided with the British in Ireland. de Wiart was in charge of the British army unit stationed in Northern Ireland for a time and there is nothing complicated about his role in that piece of Britain’s colonial history. Seems like you’re not any less full of shit than the original poster.

In the end, I’d want to ask the owner why they felt it necessary to sell their shit with something like this. Why use a reference to the military? Why use a white, aristocratic, turn of the century general? Why are people so bothered when that behavior is rightly called out?

By: Pacific Standard Simon

Pacific Standard Simon — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 04:13:00 +0000

“Hipster” does have an actual meaning, you know (not that it’s understood by most people who use the term). A hipster is someone who is unhealthily concerned with what other people regard as “hip”. So you could be a hipster — doesn’t have anything to do with age or physique — though I doubt it.

By: Whatever

Whatever — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 02:56:46 +0000

“Hipster” is a loaded word used by lazy people to describe persons, places or things that are/ or are not hip or unique. Is someone “dressy? HIPSTER! Is a coffee shop or bar frequented sometimes by someone who looks like they are imaginative or unique? HIPSTER! It’s the most uncreative and useless word to describe anything. The only thing it illuminates is that the user of the word is bitter about something and doesn’t take the cognitive steps to articulate what it is they are actually bitching about. If it’s non-off-the-rack cultural signifier, that doesn’t make it “Hipster” whatever that empty word means.

And no, I’m not a hipster. I’m the most uncool, bald, slightly doughy, 35 year old guy you’ll ever meet.

By: scum

scum — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 01:02:29 +0000

I don’t really give a fuck about where people are born, I was wondering how someone could be considered a hero by cooking food.

By: Blah Blah

Blah Blah — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 23:48:09 +0000

Yeah how dare he not be born here

By: anadromy

anadromy — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 04:05:30 +0000

I actually enjoyed this exchange, and I took the first flier poster’s advice about reading up on the topics in question and, as usual, the real history is fascinating and way more complicated than what the first flier poster presented. While de Wiart was born in Belgium–and there is no doubt that Belgium’s colonial behavior was about as repugnant as it gets–he left the country as a kid and wound up fighting for the British Army. Moreover, his first campaigns were in the Boer War, which was fought against other European colonialists who were pissed off about the British abolishing slavery in South Africa, among other things. (not that the British were clear “good guys” or anything, but probably more so than their enemies.) Also, de Wiart’s mother was Irish, which makes the fact that he wound up being a British (ie: colonialist) war hero even more interesting (and complicated) given that his mother’s own country was brutally colonized and oppressed by the country he wound up fighting so valiantly for.

In other words: the random person who posted a vituperative screed about “hipsters” is–surprise–kind of full of shit.

By: Leary

Leary — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 19:57:58 +0000

I’d post about this on my social justice tumblr, but I’m entirely too triggered right now.

By: troll

troll — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 18:45:31 +0000

Nice hyphens there, whitey!

By: DomPara

DomPara — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 18:21:24 +0000

Anyone who messes with KK Cafe does so at their own peril. I guarantee you their peanut milk provides superpowers.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 18:08:20 +0000

This is the most white-privilege way to complain about something. “I’ll show them with this well-written, neatly posted, non-confrontational note!”

By: scum

scum — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 17:49:05 +0000

A guy from Virginia who moved here ten years ago, and has a food lineage that goes from yuppies, to hipsters and now techies is some how a hero?

By: Glasshole

Glasshole — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:03:42 +0000

It seems appropriate. Myint is a colonizer.

By: Brillo

Brillo — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 01:54:22 +0000

And don’t even get me started about the Soup Plantation.