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Comment by pmyjavec | Hacker News Reader

The word hippy and the negative connotations associated with it are fascinating to me, it's amazing how western societies have created a negative connotation to describe a person who is probably more caring, conscious and alternate thinking than your average citizen. Basically a hippy is someone guilty of 'thought crime'.

It's an amazing device.

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I used to hold an opinion of hippies similar to yours. Then 1. I watched the documentary on Woodstock and saw the disaster they made out of that place and 2. Spent a lot of time around my cousin and her friends when she was in art school. My conclusion was that hippies aren't any better or worse than other people. They suffer the same flaws as everyone else. The downside is that they seem to put forward this air of high-mindedness that rings pretty false to me.

And they have worse hygiene :)

There are hippies and there are trend following hedonists. You are talking about the latter.

No true hippy?

Whatever the semantics and supposed logical fallacy, there are multiple groups of people that are categorized by the mainstream as "hippies", even though some of them are opposite in many ways.

I was referring to Woodstock, largely considered the high-water mark in hippy culture and my experience with hippies in my personal life when I was close to the group. You decided neither of those groups are hippies, though I have no idea what criteria you used to make that determination, or why you think it's accurate.

Well apparently the farmer that hosted Woodstock was genuinely appreciative for everyone coming out there, and came out and thanked everyone on the last day of the festival.

I agree with your sentiments overall though.

I'm just saying the movie shifted my perspective some.

Also, IIRC, he got on the stage and thanked them while it was still going on. Before he saw the mountain of trash they left on his property.

You're more than welcome to continue to be fascinated... and ineffective. Sometimes you need to come down from your moral highground to meet the enemy.

Thanks for validating my point :)

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