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Prejudice against Geeks/Nerds


Lyanna Stark

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I don't think it's a prejudice against people who enjoy "nerdy" things like SFF/Fantasy or video games. It's a prejudice against those who worship these things to the point of obsession.

That's where being a nerd or geek stops and being a loser begins. Unfortunately, those who are fans of certain properties will always be tied in with the die hard obsessives. It's up to you to either prove those who would hold such beliefs wrong or tell them to fuck off.

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I know there have been lots of debates regarding the geek hierarchy (not going to touch whether LARPers, Trekkies or Furries are lower on the rung here

Why is LARPing so looked down upon? I'd happily join in if we ever had any in the city, though as it is I can't even find a regular D&D group. How is LARP different from any Scout wide-game or even paintball with a bit more imagination, really?

I think the local attitude towards genre geekery is generaly positive though, both because its this foreign thing and so not subject to a huge amount of digging about in, and becuase theres a traditional culture here of groups of young people getting together for some particular interest in youth movements and such anyway, so heading out to stage mock swordfights in a star trek uniform for a couple of days is not somehow inherently lower on the scale of social acceptability than heading out to go hiking or build a giant hedgehog out of logs and rope. (which is what the scouts do here every summer. (er, not just hedgehogs)

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The basement dwellers haven't gone away, they're still there. Learning Klingon, arguing about SF/F minutia on the Internet, buying Star Wars clothing in XXXL because all their old duds are crusty with Cheetos-crumbs and generally living up to the Comic Book Guy nerd stereotype.

It's just that now, all sorts of normal folk are enjoying the speculative fiction genre as well. Fucking the curve up as it were.

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I've always got a SFF book with me when I go to hearings. Right now I'm sitting in court with a copy of Gardner Dozois Twenty-Sixth Annual Best of Sci-Fi collection. No one has ever snickered that I'm aware of. Also I have a couple of Judges who always ask what I'm reading.

If I am ever in any sort of trouble, I want a lawyer that will stand and argue for my right to trial by combat!

As for the persistence of the nerd in the basement stereotype, I place the blame upon the nerd in the basement. Most of us are fairly normal individuals. We have jobs, we have relationships, we interact with other members of society, we have reason, and we venture outside of our houses almost daily. The people who perpetuate this stereotype's sad existence wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this, where something other than one of their chosen areas of focus might occasionally be discussed. I see it as being an obsessive and addictive personality trait expressed in otherwise intelligent people. Some kids satisfy their addictive needs with sex, with drugs, or with a combination of vices. The nerd in the basement was too intelligent to get into drugs, too awkward to get laid, not remotely able to get into sports, and did not have enough friends to help them get into anything else. So they went deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole that is (insert nerd item of obsession here).

Sci/Fi, Fantasy, Gaming, etc. have made leaps and bounds towards coming up out of the shadows of the stairwell as of late. That much is true. As a lifelong gamer and lover of fantasy and sci/fi I am quite glad to see these things becoming acceptable within the mainstream. I don't think that they will ever be completely free from the stereotype though, because the basement dwellers are real and they are difficult to ignore on those rare occasions when they crawl into the real world. They are so incredibly out of place outside of the basement that their mere presence in the real world creates something of a spectacle.

ETA: Where's the emoticon wearing glasses stabbing another emoticon in the eye with a pen when you need it?

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And I work in a high school, so I assume that I'd see quite a bit of it.

It popped up last year in the Things' grade one class, when another boy said that nerds/geeks were stupid, and spent all their time in basements playing video games. If he does it again when I'm around, I'm going to ask him who he thinks came up with all his video games and consoles, if not a nerd. ;)

I figure you can be neck deep in as many nerdy interests as you like and avoid any stigma as long as you know how to handle yourself in mainstram social situations. Likes Star Wars = fine. Can't understand that Boba Fett costume is not appropriate for a cocktail party = possible problem.

:lol:

I also wonder how much anti-geek sentiment comes from a weird kind of anti-intellectualism (there was a thread about that long ago, IIRC):

- we don't like or trust people who are smarter/better-educated/better-informed (I suppose "can speak Klingon" counts here) than us

- geeks/nerds seem to be smarter/better-educated/better-informed than us

- therefore we don't like geeks/nerds

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Where are these subterranean unemployed computer game addicted blubber bags? I want evidence, I want numbers, I want graphs.

I'm sure theres people like that, in the sense that theres people like everything, and I can even see the correlation between liking smart, complicated, immersive things and a certain level of social awkwardness and possibly also independent non-mainstream thinking, but I don't buy the jump to 'complete social retardation, incapable of functioning day to day, existence of pure patheticness, etc'.

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However, to me, anyone that comes onto a message board consisting of people they hardly know and asks for relationship advice is begging to get fucked with. How in heaven and earth is that considered even remotely normal? If in fact they are not a /nerd/ (I think geeks are a little more refined) they should have actual friends to discuss these issues with. Not some random stranger on the interweb.

Yes, because I never consult a stranger on a problem that I am having that is deeply personal. Like walking into a Doctor's office, presenting all my personal information to a receptionist and then sitting down with a doctor, whom I don't know to discuss it. Or going to a mechanic to diagnosis an issue with my call. Or relying on emergency personel, none of whom I have never met, to save my life. I just trust they do.

I guess I don't see any of that as being much different than asking, with relative anominity than any of those other situations, about what a good first date is.

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Yes, because I never consult a stranger on a problem that I am having that is deeply personal. Like walking into a Doctor's office, presenting all my personal information to a receptionist and then sitting down with a doctor, whom I don't know to discuss it. Or going to a mechanic to diagnosis an issue with my call. Or relying on emergency personel, none of whom I have never met, to save my life. I just trust they do.

I guess I don't see any of that as being much different than asking, with relative anominity than any of those other situations, about what a good first date is.

Major difference here (although i shouldn't have to point this out) is that all the above mentioned examples are you going to a TRAINED professional. Not a bunch of strangers on the interweb putting in their two cents about shit they more than likely have no clue about. Although they might be good on the first date idea, i have however seen people on here asking about some deeply personal shit. To me that is just strange. I have actual real life friends that i can discuss this situation with that actually know me and my personality, the situation at hand, and usually the other person involved. To me coming on here and asking about divorce, marriage, breaking up, shit like that is just weird to me. And bespeaks of low social skills in the real world. A person with strong ties in the real world would be able discuss those issues with family and friends in that setting.

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Where are these subterranean unemployed computer game addicted blubber bags? I want evidence, I want numbers, I want graphs.

There has been quite a lot of heated discussion about numbers in relation to Japan recently - especially after the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications cited an estimate of a Japanese NGO that the number of hikikomori (or shut-ins) who have given up on social life has reached 3.6 million (which is around double previous estimates). Arguments against this figure include the counting methodologies of the NGO and the fact that the government may just be citing whatever it can get its hands on to support new legislation.

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Why is LARPing so looked down upon? I'd happily join in if we ever had any in the city, though as it is I can't even find a regular D&D group. How is LARP different from any Scout wide-game or even paintball with a bit more imagination, really?

1. Faking medieval dialect is just funny. Especially when it's bad.

2. The word LARPer is intrinsically humorous.

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Major difference here (although i shouldn't have to point this out) is that all the above mentioned examples are you going to a TRAINED professional. Not a bunch of strangers on the interweb putting in their two cents about shit they more than likely have no clue about. Although they might be good on the first date idea, i have however seen people on here asking about some deeply personal shit. To me that is just strange. I have actual real life friends that i can discuss this situation with that actually know me and my personality, the situation at hand, and usually the other person involved. To me coming on here and asking about divorce, marriage, breaking up, shit like that is just weird to me. And bespeaks of low social skills in the real world. A person with strong ties in the real world would be able discuss those issues with family and friends in that setting.

Having never requested relationship advice on this board before, I can't speak directly for those who have. But the fact is that over months and years of reading each others' posts, many members of this board have developed a healthy respect for the social experience and intellect of other boarders and so will occasionally request advice, even in relation to sensitive matters, to supplement that which they have already received (or will receive) from close friends or family. Although you are entitled to your opinion, I'm not sure how you could possibly conclude from that state of affairs that all boarders who ask for advice in relation to personal matters are lacking social skills in the real world.

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Having never requested relationship advice on this board before, I can't speak directly for those who have. But the fact is that over months and years of reading each others' posts, many members of this board have developed a healthy respect for the social experience and intellect of other boarders and so will occasionally request advice, even in relation to sensitive matters, to supplement that which they have already received (or will receive) from close friends or family. Although you are entitled to your opinion, I'm not sure how you could possibly conclude from that state of affairs that all boarders who ask for advice in relation to personal matters are lacking social skills in the real world.

Not to mention that some of us known each other well in real life, and/or we already have the opinions of our friends and family and want a broader or unbiased viewpoint.

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People who criticise a sub-culture always focus on the extremes of that sub-culture. Take Emo for example: "Emos" are portrayed as manic depressives who slit their wrists regularly and hate everyone including themselves. It doesn't occur to some people that a perfectly ordinary person (but is anyone a "perfectly ordinary person"?) can listen to Emo, have a wierd haircut and not want to kill themselves.

Prejudice of Geeks/Nerds exists because people saw Trekkies dressed as Spock or a Klingon and assumed that everyone who liked Sci-Fi is like that. It's just a fact of human nature that we jump to conclusions before looking at all the evidence.

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Having never requested relationship advice on this board before, I can't speak directly for those who have. But the fact is that over months and years of reading each others' posts, many members of this board have developed a healthy respect for the social experience and intellect of other boarders and so will occasionally request advice, even in relation to sensitive matters, to supplement that which they have already received (or will receive) from close friends or family. Although you are entitled to your opinion, I'm not sure how you could possibly conclude from that state of affairs that all boarders who ask for advice in relation to personal matters are lacking social skills in the real world.

And also of course thanks to the BWB, a fair number of people here are also real world friends off-board; and this is an easy way to get in touch with them all at once.

ETA...too slow

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And also of course thanks to the BWB, a fair number of people here are also real world friends off-board; and this is an easy way to get in touch with them all at once.

ETA...too slow

*cough* Speaking of BwB *cough cough*

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And also of course thanks to the BWB, a fair number of people here are also real world friends off-board; and this is an easy way to get in touch with them all at once.

It is the case, I find, that those who're inclined to write off people on the board in general as 'lacking in social skills' or just as 'a bunch of nerds' are those who haven't met many of us in real life. :)

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