I am sure you have heard of them. They regularly spout such phrases as "the media is raping us," "you are a capitalist whore," and "religion is mind control." They use screechy vocals and lots of curse words to get their point across, causing a normal person to believe that they are fanatics rather than educating that same person about what normally might constitute a valid opinion. This doesn't seem to faze them though, and they rationalize the person's dismissal of them with an excuse similar to "they were a fucking sheep who didn't get it."
They are anti-corporations, hate major labels and deem bands who sign to them "sell-outs," anti-capitalism (usually into communism/socialism or anarchy), and disgustingly religiously intolerant (yet seem to think they are better than those damned genocidal Christians). Often, but not always, they are a vegetarian/vegan who must constantly remind their friends that meat is murder and dairy is rape. Yet, they do not have these opinions because they have spent careful time and research on them. Oh, no.
They do it because it's "punk." They do it because other people in the scene do it or because their favourite band screamed it at them. And the band and the other scenesters do it because someone else told them to do it. It's a vicious cycle until it's hard to decipher who originally thought this lifestyle out for themselves. Ultimately, these kids have no convictions. As "hardcore" as they may appear, they are no different in any way, no matter what you may be told otherwise, than any preteen skateboarder bopping along to Avril Lavigne.
Now, I'm no fan of corporations, major labels, or 80% of capitalism, but I have actually given these ideals some thought. Although I'm not a vegetarian or vegan, if I were, I would certainly try not to turn people away from my lifestyle by constantly berating them. I am an atheist, yet I shockingly somehow make it through the day without screaming "God is dead!" or comparing religion to facism. I firmly believe in religious tolerance, and the prejudice expressed by these "hardcore" kids disgusts me to my very core. I'll admit that I did go through a whiny "religion sucks" phase, but I was a preteen, so give me a break.
No worries, though, although it will take time to get rid of them all. Eventually, these kids will graduate from high school (or if they're really hardcore, drop out) and the working world will hit them fucking hard. The plug will be pulled on their life of half-assed theories ripped off from hundreds of others throughout the past 25-or-so years of punk. They will realize that they have never believed this all along, and dismiss it as a foolish teenage stage. They'll lose the mohawk and the patches, take out their piercings, get a 9-5 job, enlist in the military to pay their way through community college, marry a religious spouse and live a fairly religious life, move to the suburbs in a nice house with a picket fence, buy an SUV, have a few kids and a few pets, invest in the stock market, and live a bland life until they're dead at 85. They never had any convictions to keep this from happening.
It will take time, but I will laugh when I am out of university and can still listen to one of my old CDs now and then, while these kids have become the very thing they always hated.