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Comment by justinator | Hacker News Reader

Given Vice's early print mag being simply hipster trash, it's somewhat remarkable where they've gotten to.

The racist, mysogynist cofounder is gunna be a hard thing for me to forget when I think about Vice going forward.

If it was hipster trash, how did it end up getting to where it ended up in the first place? There were many other mags that were similarly "hipster trash" that could have had the ascent Vice had. Why not them? You must admit that Vice took a similar approach to Gawker, of measured infotainment, that the pulp sold financed the hardboiled detective journalism. The latter elevated and diversified the empire's brand as a whole. Its cofounder (racist and misogynist or not) remained instrumental in launching it and bringing it to critical mass in the first place; to say otherwise would be revisionism.

If it was hipster trash, how did it end up getting to where it ended up in the first place?

This isn't a question I was trying to answer, and I don't believe the two are mutually exclusive. My only point is that Vice changed from being some free crap you picked up at American Apparel which most popular part was shaming people's fashion style, to what it is today. How did American Apparel get so large (and where are they now?)? All they did was sell very expensive t-shirts. My guess is fashion trends and marketing - much of that marketing done by, sigh another fairly controversial figure.

https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/nov/18/terry-richar...

Perhaps making fun of people = visitors = website clicks (as their was an online version of this as well) = advertising moneys. I dunno. Someone saw value in that, and trusted this particular person. I could opt that successful businesses with little real worth are built with the hands of sociopaths (but I'm going that far).

> Perhaps making fun of people

I like to think it’s because society at-large has improved - otherwise PeopleOfWalmart and other websites of its ilk would still be relevant.

I think it’s just turned from funny to depressing.

Of maybe the novelty wore off. Either way, we're all probably better off now that it has run its course.

I think that's the case. And in a way, I think this echoes my original point -- how fickle it is when the the entire thing that makes your product desirable is a novelty that has no longevity!

It wasn't a new novelty though - besides PoW there was (and still is) plenty of classist and snobbish people-watching communities and their content, even on reddit - and it isn't anything new: "white trash" is an ancient term that's still in-use, and I don't think many people watch COPS for mundane police encounters.

Oh, for sure. I wonder where we can draw the line. I think that a flavor that is shared by Vice, COPS, PoW and its ilk is a gonzo journalism quality. And you know, now that you mention the classist, snobbish qualities to it, I think there's a key element I was missing in my original point: voyeurism. There's some really specific stuff going on in the way that a class observes the "trashy" mannerisms of a underclass, and it's necessarily veiled because discussion of it is deemed crude, base, or otherwise unbecoming of that class. Would you agree that there's an element of voyeurism there?

> Would you agree that there's an element of voyeurism there?

Definitely.

Upvoted because I think you have a fair point, and I agree that the two are not mutually exclusive. But that's the point I'm getting at -- the sad truth is that sex sells. People love tabloids, they love controversy, they love sketchiness. And I think your comparison with Terry Richardson is very apt. As a child comment to this one you made says, it does look like the countercultural vanguard moved past this kind of edgy towards a different one that is more concerned with notions of social justice and equity.

Not to derail this thread too much, but I think that one is potentially even more insidious because it's much more spiritually authoritarian and panoptical. But that one too is beginning to elicit fatigue, especially with corporate sponsors that for a while had been attempting to subsume it into a third position that they now believe may have become [1] untenable.

I guess the question is, what's next?

[1]https://www.businessinsider.com/google-cut-diversity-program...

He was the best part of Vice along with other early members. They used to have AMAZING stories and documentaries during his time.

Afterwards, the company went straight to shit. Now, we're blessed with quality articles such as: 1)"Nintendo Switch's Joy-con Sync issue is Even worse if you put it in your butt" 2)"Three days of torture in a male chastity device" 3)"How to pick a chastity cage lock with a condom wrapper" 4)"Finally, a new emoji to mock men"

I will be celebrating when Vice (along with BuzzFeed and Vox) file for bankruptcy.

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