Harley Davidsons

Expensive, noisy, unreliable, slow and pointless. While that one South Park episode did bring things to light, it simply revealed the truth that's been going on for a while. The biker generation is long, long gone and since Harley's are so stupidly expensive it's target market is exclusively comprised of rich posers. Yeah, you're so cool and badass for having a Kia Morning overtake you as you cruise along in your noisy penny-farthing wearing a $200 bandana to cover your bald spot.

Smoking cigarettes

I think my generation was the very last where it was still kind of cool to be a teenager who smoked and even that's pushing it.

My mind is elsewhere right now so I can't think of much else.

Sarcasm

95% of things we were into for most of our lives. What has endured might be more appropriate? 

Video games
Legos
Spectator Sports (though that may move from 'Least Concern' to 'Vulnerable' or even 'Endangered' in a few decades due to tech)
Television (see above)
Movies (see above

95% of things we were into for most of our lives. What has endured might be more appropriate? 

Video games
Movies (see above)

I dunno, I sorta feel the reverse has happened for those two. Stuff like playing vidya and watching comic book movies was something youd get called a geek/nerd for back in the day, but now most people play Call of Duty or League or something and marvel movies are super mainstream.

I dunno, I sorta feel the reverse has happened for those two. Stuff like playing vidya and watching comic book movies was something youd get called a geek/nerd for back in the day, but now most people play Call of Duty or League or something and marvel movies are super mainstream.

Sorry if I didn't make it clear. I meant those are some of the few things that have endured (video games, legos, etc.)

Almost everything else is gone. Heck, a bunch of my students barely watch TV anymore. It's all youtube and twitch and such.

ah, right, i can see what you meant with the clarification and it can read that way at a second glance. ig i sort of assumed it was just addressing op and your line about "what has endured" was a one-off


I mean yeah, but too much of anything can be perceived that way lol. Like nobody is gonna give somebody shit for watching the game on saturdays, but there are a lot of dudes who are super nerdy about sports, for example

You ever notice the dudes that are super nerdy about sports, the kind that learn every player's name and stats, are often guys who never played any sports in any meaningful way?  I always found that pretty interesting.  Not people who just enjoy watching sports, but those who go over the top.  Like in hockey they would be the knob who doesn't like to use the usual terms for something so they can show how much they know.  Like the sports writers who say "hit the iron" instead of hit the crossbar or post, or say "ducats" instead of tickets and "donnybrook" instead of brawl.  They're also most likely to be that moron who refers to the group of guys they are out with as "boys" like their addressing a team on the bench.  Annoys the hell out of me.  "Come on boys!  Another round."

I know I would think anyone over 30 who regularly plays video games on their own is a nerd if that helps.  I get busting out a N64 with multiple controllers when some friends are over and Mario Karts is on deck along with some cold beers.  But, for those of you (and there are some) that are heading straight out after work to pick up a can of Pringles and big bottle of Coke before getting into the XBox or PS4...stop blaming it on Covid and get out of the villa. 

The video game industry has eclipsed the movie industry and North American Sports industry as far as revenue is concerned. So, calling people who enjoy video games nerds is kind of like calling everyone, over 30, who enjoys movies a serious film buff. Gaming is incredibly mainstream and gamers are more varied than ever (you've got the group you described, the FIFA guys, mobile crowd, Online competitive gamers, casuals and everything else you could think of) . That 80s 'Revenge of the Nerds' stereotype is only really held onto by people who're really, REALLY stuck in a time-warp. Not everyone's going to enjoy video games, but most can understand that it's not a nerd things anymore.

You ever notice the dudes that are super nerdy about sports, the kind that learn every player's name and stats, are often guys who never played any sports in any meaningful way?  I always found that pretty interesting.  Not people who just enjoy watching sports, but those who go over the top.  Like in hockey they would be the knob who doesn't like to use the usual terms for something so they can show how much they know.  Like the sports writers who say "hit the iron" instead of hit the crossbar or post, or say "ducats" instead of tickets and "donnybrook" instead of brawl.  They're also most likely to be that moron who refers to the group of guys they are out with as "boys" like their addressing a team on the bench.  Annoys the hell out of me.  "Come on boys!  Another round."

I know and detest that group of gorillas. While being an athlete and sportsman since before I can remember, I realized from a young age that watching sports was not my bag, it feels like watching others having fun and cheering them on. My main gripe with the "Couch Uncles" was how they'd swear, mock and criticize athletes for not moving quick enough/hitting hard enough or reacting quick enough for their liking. Most of these guys wouldn't be able to get off the couch before the final whistle blew. All I can think of when I see their massive beer guts perpetually covered in their favourite team's jersey (regardless of occasion) and insistence on only hanging out with "The Boys" is a very repressed, latent homo-eroticism.

While I am a sports fan, I really don't care for "homer" sports fans that lose all objectivity. Like I have the teams I support and I enjoy the live story that is crafted before your eyes, but I don't get the blind foam finger loyalty that causes them to get violently angry and do things like beat up some stranger in a parking lot for wearing a visiting team's hat. Like I comment on my local team's SBNation site, but some of the people there are just...like you say anything negative about the team and they blow a gasket. Then they'll spend the rest of the time trashing other teams as though someone actually cares.

I think the worst have got to be the Premier League fans back home. Nothing is sadder than a grown man whose Facebook wall is comprised of nothing but his crappy memes mocking the opposing team for anything from a loss to a transfer of a player.
Enjoy your sports, have a bit of rivalry and a bit of banter, that's cool, but these guys are seriously an insufferable oafs when they go into ape mode. These guys really need to grow up, if it weren't for the beer/fast food gut and the bald spot I'd confuse them for 5yr olds coming to fisticuffs over which Power Ranger is best.

Harley Davidson?
Lego?

... if they aren't "cool", you aren't cool.

Now, it's cool to be eco-friendly. That electric Ford Mustang is the cat's meow.

But a Harley remains, to date, the very definition of cool for a motorcycle. Criticize it for being noisy, wasteful, dangerous and polluting, but you ain't winning minds with an argument that it's not cool.

Even Boomers generally think Harley's are pathetic little poser pushers.

Why were Harley's considered cool in the first place? I'll take a crack at it though it still perplexes me.

- Symbol of the rebel (from 60yrs ago)
- History (in other words, a way for old men to relive the glory days)
- Associated with motorcycle gangs (who were "apparently" intimidating "badasses")
- Signature sound
- Image in general

What they're now

- Overpriced/ridiculously expensive and out of financial reach of the average "rebel".

- Ridden exclusively by rich, annoying, old posers who'll spend upwards of $20 000 to copy to their dead man-crush. They'll congregate in their little "gangs", on Sundays, wearing their little fanboy uniforms and ride around annoying the shit out of everyone... unless, of course, their piles or haemorrhoids are acting up.

- Slower than a 3-legged rocking horse, but louder than a piano falling down a staircase. Ridden by "idiots, full of sound and fury signifying nothing."

- Being a Harley rider is about making a noise as you go from one group of Harley riders to meet another group of Harley riders and at some point you'll have a beer and discuss next weeks plans to meet some more Harley riders... right after you've met and hung out with a group of Harley riders.

- It requires zero skill. All you need is too much money, a strong poser affinity and a sad longing to live someone else's past.

While I don't know much about them, I can at least understand how super-bikes are cool, they can reach speeds over 300km/h and anyone willing to go that fast on two wheels has massive balls and, while reckless and stupid, is somewhat cool. Harleys do nothing... nothing at all. A guy who built something, that's ok, but a guy who spent money to be something he isn't, lame as hell.

Sorry, my man. Like a stubborn fart smell, something isn't cool just because it's been around for a while.