If you support your local scene, bands playing in grimy pubs etc, you'll see it is not posers. Every single big band that the posers like got there by being supported by people with a genuine passion, travelling to shows on week nights etc. The posers couldn't exist without the huge number of people who actively paid the entry fee and bought the records and t shirts when the bands on their patches started out.
The posers mostly come to the big shows. Just for fun if any of you are into punk but not familiar with UK bands,
here and
here, are two great songs about "weekend punks," "so where the hell do you get off saying you support bands only see you at the big shows, in a way its ok never mind it tough guy, nothing here nothing for you." Should emphasise, most of such songs are tounge in cheek. Incidentally the second band linked are now Creeper and play at big festivals. Can't blame them, they were never gonna be able to make a living out of Our Time Down Here and at least they had the decency to become a new band before becoming intolerable (to me) so they could make a living off music, unlike Alkaline Trio and AFI. Or Onsind for a more recent example...
If someone says they like punk or hardcore and can't name a single current band from their city, then they're a poser. Exceptions probably have to be made for people from Boston, the East Bay, LA, etc but I think as a rough rule of thumb it stands. Though some cities seem to not have scenes at all, I'd make an exception for them too.
The song "Its over, go home, your cage is clean" from
here sums up pretty well the idea that punk is very much still alive if you look in the right places. "You keep your glory days, we'll write something new...... look down, on me cos I wasn't there in '83, its still alive, but i wasn't there in '85."
Also, anyone who has ever lived an extremely self destructive lifestyle, Apathy is easy from that link might hit fucking hard.
People have been saying punk is dead for decades. Currently in the UK, we have a load of bands who are fantastic live: Incisions, Bobby funk, Pizzatramp, Bruise control, Wonk unit, Grand collapse, Rash decision, Fatalist, Disaster forecast, Casual nausea, Knife club. I could go on, most of those bands are better live than on record. I'm a fucking old cunt who has been mostly out of touch for the last decade but I can definitively say, punk is not mostly posers, and its definitely not like troonism.