Well, according to the online scumbags; to them, the young man looks like a hipster. To today's mainstream culture, the hipsters are the outsiders, the undesirables, the so-called "cork boards" upon which the problems and grudges of society are pinned. They are the rebels; those who question authority and try to find new answers for life.
Personally, for me, the hipsters are quite artsy folk and I enjoy their talents and what they have to offer for the world. Truthfully, I could use more hipster friends.
Anyway, the young man I've referenced here is Christopher "C.D." Hermelin (you can check out his web page or follow him on Twitter). He currently is involved in a project he has dubbed the "roving typist". He started out sitting in parks or public areas with a $10 typewriter and personally wrote handcrafted stories that he would sell to customers at any price they saw fit. The experiment proved to be a smashing success; so successful, in fact, that C.D. had to put people on hold because the demand for his stories were so great it was hard to keep up with. I, for one, think this idea amounts to a stroke of pure genius. Being a creative writer myself, I share in Christopher's passion of writing from the imagination.
You think to yourself; what could possibly go wrong here?
Well, this is where the trolls from the darkest nether-regions of the Internet decided to prey upon its latest star.
An unidentified person snapped a picture of C.D. at work and posted it to the forum website Reddit; the angle that the photo was taken at removed some crucial context of the scene. To many who saw the image, C.D. was just another example of a "greedy hipster" trying to draw attention to himself by using an outdated piece of technology. The trolls got to work; soon the image went viral as an internet meme, with captions such as this one:
The comments that followed were vitriolic, even with one user, named Illmatic707, replying with the following message: I have never wanted to fist fight someone so badly in my entire life.
I must say myself, I have never seen a more pathetic expression of irrational violent thought in my entire lifetime. Why do you wish to fist fight C.D., Illmatic, what has he done to you? Seems to me like you just wanna blow off steam or sound like a tough guy. Good luck with that illusion of yours.
Naturally, C.D. was and even now isn't going to let the Internet infamy slow him down. He still has quite a popular fanbase that's still growing. You can read his first hand account of reacting to the hipster hatred for yourself. Also, you can check out a secondhand account from PolicyMic.com.
What I can say is this: the Internet is a dangerous place, and no matter where you go, there will always be hungry trolls standing by waiting to screw with the most naïve of Internet users. It all stems back to the age-old problem of bullying. Sadly, there are terrible people in this world who derive their pleasure from the suffering of others. I know; I was the brunt of bullying during my elementary school years. I felt shunned in my high school years.
But I rose up from it all and moved on. Now, I've never been happier in my life, and I've learned to not let the haters damper your dreams. If you can face bullies in person, why shy away from a faceless nobody over the Internet? Why should their pitiful, empty words mean anything?
I would say the same to C.D., although it looks like he has it covered: don't listen to the trolls and the haters. If they call you a hipster, wear that label with pride. Keep using the typewriter, keep writing stories for people, keep standing out. Brave and creative men and women like you add some needed variety to this world.
What are your comments about the situation? Please respond in the comments below at your leisure.
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