Is it normal that i can't stand guys with pork pie hats or backwards ball caps?

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26 Comments

Is it normal that I can't stand guys with pork pie hats or backwards ball caps? To me, guys that walk around like this are broadcasting, "look at me. I'm hip. I'm young. I'm open minded. I'm rebelling against conformity. I am NOT a Republican (if I even know anything about politics). My appearance pisses off older people and I like that. I'm a cool member of a narrow demographic slice at a very special time of my life. And if it bugs you, I couldn't care less, you irrelevant old a**hole."

Now, to be fair, in some east coast cities, middle-aged men wear pork pie hats, but they're not trying to send that message; but I'm talking about guys under about 25.

Oh, me? I'm a white guy over 50 in a large west coast city. Of course I would LIKE to be 22 again myself, but even if I was, I would not dress like these guys. I find those hat styles really annoying; along with the piercings, earlobe hoops, and tattoos. Sweet Jesus, where the heck do we go from HERE?

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57% Normal
Based on 74 votes (42 yes)
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Comments ( 26 )
  • shade_ilmaendu
    11 years ago

    I think you should set up a chair in random places that these people like to hang out, and then scream "Hey you damn, kids, get off my lawn!" and other such sentiments.

    I don't know what it would acheive, I just think it would be funny.

    As to your question, at least it's not duckfaces and spray tans. I have no issues with body mod if it's tastefully done, but I understand being annoyed at the people trying to be "hip". Be your goddamn self and wear what you like, cause if you look like you're wearing a uniform for a stereotype every day, you're doin it wrong.

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    • FreDraken
      11 years ago

      Young people are mostly AFRAID to be themselves. They want to 'fit in' with the cool kids, so they copy them in dress, speech, mannerisms and taste in entertainment. Thus, a lot of them wind up resembling each other.
      It's about 'fear of being different' and being rejected by their peer group. Young people's egos are very vulnerable and they need a few years to find an identity. They're so immersed in a process that they can't see what it looks like to others. ( As if they would even CARE, right? ROFL. )
      A lot of what it looks like is needy, fear-driven and aggressive.

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      • shade_ilmaendu
        11 years ago

        I'm glad I was never one of those... I certainly was never popular or well liked, but fuck that noise. ;P I have my integrity.

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      • SangoNyappy
        11 years ago

        I don't care if I'm not popular (and believe me I'm not at all) as long as I can have my own fucking opinion and not be controlled by other peoples "style"

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  • VioletTrees
    11 years ago

    I have a tattoo and some piercings. The tattoo is of something my dad designed. I have my tattoo and my piercings because I LIKE THEM, not because I'm trying to look hip or rebellious. My piercings make me feel pretty. Looking at my tattoo makes me happy. I'm friends with people of a wide range of ages. Some of the friends my fiancé and I hang out with most regularly are in their mid 40's. Why would I choose how I change my appearance specifically to annoy older people? That would be silly and slightly pathetic.

    For that matter, why do you think these young men dress the way they do to annoy you and people your age? I seriously doubt that they're thinking about YOU when they get dressed in the morning or go to the tattoo parlour. My fiancé has gauged earlobes and several tattoos. He likes them. I like them. I find them interesting and attractive. Why does he need more reason than that? Why on Earth should he care what you think of them? His superiors at the major corporation where he works don't mind them, either.

    I really don't think you have a realistic view of why young people dress the way we do, or even how we dress. If you did, you'd probably have noticed that backwards baseball caps haven't been popular for at least a decade.

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    • kelili
      11 years ago

      Exactly what I wanted to say. I don't have piercings though, just tattoos. I totally agree with the third paragraph.

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  • Mando
    11 years ago

    I don't think younger people dress to piss off old guys. They do it to draw attention to themselves from peers. But you are as entitled as anyone as an observer to have an opinion. To me the cocked baseball cap/delinquent-look thing is goofy.

    But THE worse are the pants belted up below the ass underwear-moon look while waddling like a penguin. Now THAT is so fucking funny - so ridiculous. Holy crap - was there any dumber look in the history of mankind?

    The big cowboy hats on all the country crooners are silly-assed too: hey, and people sporting grotesque self-mutilating tats and piercings = and don't forget the business district for that finely groomed fresh off the conformity conveyor belt look.

    But why oh why would you be offended?

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    • FreDraken
      11 years ago

      "... and don't forget the business district for that finely groomed fresh off the conformity conveyor belt look."

      I'm thinking that part of their motivation could be that they want to look sharp to keep bagging those 'fresh off the conformity conveyor belt' hundred grand plus salaries, plus bonuses and great benefits.

      I would gladly have worn a suit and tie for the last 40 years if I'd been paid triple what I averaged for each of those years. As it was, I probably wore a tie fewer than ten times.
      Q: So can I now buy a yacht with what I saved in dry-cleaning costs?
      A: No, but maybe a used Prius.

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      • Mando
        11 years ago

        Good point!

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  • robbieforgotpw
    10 years ago

    Pork pie hats are fun
    *sharts

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  • 1000yrVampireKing
    11 years ago

    What if they just like hats and wearing it that way? I have no idea what a pork pie hat is by the way. Also I understand where you coming from. I hate when children will act anti conservative just because they think its cool. That pretend they actually believe in this shit because they think it is cool.

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  • Kharnthebetrayer
    11 years ago

    It's just a difference in culture. I can easily say old people like you burned out all your fun in the 70s tripping acid and whatever else stereotypical older people did in their youth, but i wouldnt be correct. I wear hats backwards, have tattoos and had piercings for years and I'm twenty. I've learned my fair share of life lessons, one of them being that no matter how many life lessons i think is a fair share you have a million more to go. The majority of the people like this are idiots trying to rebel, just like most older people grow out of their more energetic stage. I'm sure people your parents age thought you were a hooligan too.

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    • FreDraken
      11 years ago

      My parents, nor any of their peers ever thought I was a hooligan. I was a what is now called a 'nerd' all through high school. I worked my ass off before and after school in the first two years on a paper route via bicycle.
      I never dressed like or affected the mannerisms of the 'cool guys' at the time. (The location was Medford, Mass. a suburb of Boston in '57 and '58)

      The style was greasy ducktail haircuts (like Travolta in 'Grease'), dungarees (blue jeans), and white T-shirts with a pack of cigarettes rolled into the sleeves and smoking unfiltered cigarettes. Marlon Brando and James Dean played characters like this; rebellious and alienated. But that was for the cool guys. I just wanted a career in technology. I didn't want to fight or intimidate anyone or put on an act that wansn't who I saw myself as.

      I thought my Dad was a square (he was 26 years older than me) but I respected his judgement and his achievement in his field; as a salesman for industrial rubber products. We was the ultimate can-do, self-starter kind of guy. He was able to support five boys and a stay-at-home wife. That can't be said of a lot of men these days.

      So what do you do? Stockbroker, bouncer, produce clerk, what?

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  • Tystick
    11 years ago

    I saw George Bush with his hat on backwards. He didn't want anybody to see what it said up front. It said "I'm responsible for high gas prices. That's why I started that war just like my daddy did."

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    • FreDraken
      11 years ago

      Hilarious. You should be writing bits for Jon Stewart. Quit your day job.

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  • FreDraken
    11 years ago

    Perhaps 'offended' is too strong a term here. Maybe 'revulsion' would be a better word. Sort of what I felt when I saw the clip of the fat 2-year baby in Indonesia puffing away on cigarettes. He was smoking over a pack a day.

    I totally agree with on the underwear-showing waddlers. Ridiculous.

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    • Mando
      11 years ago

      I hear you

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  • dom180
    11 years ago

    Why does it bother you?

    Why are you attaching a deeper meaning to items of clothing?

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    • FreDraken
      11 years ago

      Let's take the general principle a bit farther. Let's look at why I attach deeper meanings to what us old farts would call 'extreme' body modifications.

      Or would you be totally cool with your 19-year old daughter introducing you to the guy she was engaged to; a dude covered with facial tattoos, a split tongue and devil horns?

      Call me a old fashioned, but I'd be concerned for her future. I'd think I had screwed up somewhere as a father.

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  • [Old Memory]
    11 years ago

    Republicans like hats...

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  • FreDraken
    11 years ago

    @VioletTrees: I never said they dress like that "IN ORDER TO" annoy older people. Read much?
    I understand that you feel pretty and happy 'now'. Hopefully it's reversible when you decide, "look, it was a phase I went through."
    I'm informing all the rappers and the wannabees that wear baseball hats backwards that they're all out of date.

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  • Wendell
    11 years ago

    Sometimes it's fun to wear hip styles and "fit in". Sure conformity can get bad but there nothing really wrong with it in say, wearing a baseball hat backwards. And haven't people been doing that for 20 years?

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  • NoraBaker
    11 years ago

    To hell, we're all going to hell from here! Whatever we're wearing. No? :D

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  • howaminotmyself
    11 years ago

    I love hats on men! Except ball caps. I don't care for baseball hats.

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    • FreDraken
      11 years ago

      I like those plastic hats that the fighter pilots wear. The ultimate in personal privacy, don'tcha think?

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      • howaminotmyself
        11 years ago

        I thought you were going to say plastic fireman's hat. The kind they give to kids.

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