You Don't Even Know, Dude

orangeishpunkin:

shlabam replied to your photo:This I understand and can get behind. I am…

I’d say there’s actually a fair amount of belief of hierarchy among nerdfighters. I repeatedly see GIF sets of John Green deriding or insulting people who are stupid or have stupid hobbies. It’s just hard to have a movement built around being nice.

This is what I don’t like! It’s all, “Hey, I was made fun of for having the ‘wrong’ hobbies but guess what: I think your hobbies are wrong! What now?” (or, “I just want to be accepted so I’m gonna start my own club and exclude you!” It never works out well, did you learn nothing from Saturday morning cartoons?)

The problem is the word “Nerd,” I think. Given its derogatory history, it’s a divisive word used to define a specific group of people.

John Green was spot-on when he said, “Being a nerd means you like things,” because being a nerd does mean you like things. Yet they (apparently) have to be the weird things, thecounterculture, the intellectual, the crafty, the lesser-known, the hobbies of the underdogs. Jock sports nerds and mainstream pop culture nerds and grease-monkey car nerds and yuppie tech nerds are goddamn everywhere, but they’re not accepted as part of the “nerd culture” (as far as I’ve seen) because they’ve been on top already (really because they sneer at the D&D basement-dweller nerds, the most-portrayed nerds in recent times). “Nerd” needs to become all-encompassing because anyone can be a nerd as long as there’s passion and knowledge.

The “nerdfighter” movement at large seems like it isn’t about just having passions or passionately liking something anymore, because the truth is practically everybody has a passion. There is hardly anyone who straight-up doesn’t like anything, not even hipsters. So now you have a bunch of underdog nerds with an even more inflated sense of entitlement (we have entitlement issues, you know it’s true) openly hating on “mainstream” nerds and it’s just the same circle with players in different positions.

It’s hard to have a movement based on being nice, but the movement (if you want to call it that) should be focused on self-esteem and self-worth and basically, what Leyla said: not being ashamed to like what you like how you like it. Just applied to everyone.

Hate begets hate, you guys.

Yeah, basically exactly. I’ve seen way way way too many nerds who hold steadfast to the belief that their nerdy habits are not only the defining aspect of their personality, but the only aspect of their personality worth developing, and the only thing that makes them interesting. The mindset becomes “I am a nerd, and nerds are cool. Therefore, I am cool.” However, anyone who’s spent enough time at comic book stores or conventions or gaming events knows that, while there are lots of cool nerds out there, some people are just dicks. Encouraging the belief that you don’t have to be anything besides one thing, I believe, is dangerous. This is where the “entitlement” thing Megan mentioned comes into play.

Additionally, the derision applied to other hobbies that’s apparent in various John Green videos is upsetting. He makes detrimental remarks regarding people who care about celebrities like Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan. Like… just because I like Doctor Who doesn’t mean I didn’t follow The Simple Life when it was on the air. If getting enthusiastic about stuff and “loving” stuff is what makes you a nerd, then what do you call people who rabidly watch every episode of Jersey Shore? Are they not nerds just because the things they like are mainstream, or not up to your standards?

If you’re trying to fight for acceptance, you shouldn’t be putting people down. Additionally, putting yourself up on a pedestal is almost as bad. There are clearly a lot of good ideas and good people involved in this Nerdfighter thing, the problems just crop up when it seems like it’s a bunch of self-satisfied internet jockeys patting themselves on the back and giving the impression of progress. (That sounds mean, but it’s what I see when I look at the official Nerdfighter site… it’s just “we’re awesome because that’s what we decided, and there are people and things that suck, but they aren’t us” rephrased in various capacities.)

Overall, I feel like this something that is great for a lot of people, especially folks who have felt down on themselves because of their interests, I just don’t like that it encourages a dichotomy between people to whom it directly speaks and people to whom it doesn’t apply.