For those of us who like Superhero movies too much:
https://spectator.us/nerds-american-culture/
“It is a morbid sign for a democracy when the electorate chooses superheroes to do its bidding, rather than politicians”
Will Lloyd is clearly not of the Body. He must be Absorbed.
Well, we’re trying. A bigger pillow and a steadier hand would help, but I think if we act positively we can get there in no time at all!
How old is this guy? “Pessimism and paranoia” have been around for decades. “Disenchantment with authorities and institutions” has been around since the Revolution.
I’ll take a WAG that fantasy football, pro wrestling fandom, and obsession with baseball statistics don’t count as the same kind of sad nerd culture to this writer.
(And if nerds weren’t happy people at school it might have had something to do with certain sociopathic effers who felt that the nerd’s activities were worthless.)
I resent that. I’ve been told I’m adequate.
Historically in the US, the only happy people have been evil people. The bullies, the bigots, the thugs, the fanatics, the rapists, the slaveowners, the plutocrats. So I’ll take that as a compliment.
And what’s actually “smothering” American culture is copyright law, as it’s rendered the great majority of it inaccessible as it falls into a legally mandated memory hole and vanishes. If you don’t like modern culture and wish you could see something else, the reason you can’t is because most things not recently published have been crushed under the steamroller of copyright and effectively erased. Not “nerds”.
Clearly he’s totally off base. I’m nebbish, poorly-tailored and sexually inadequate and I don’t care about stories about dragons and superheroes.
Heck, throw in NASCAR fandom. I’m unclear why fictional victories (i.e. of a superhero over a villain) are “smothering” while meaningless victories (i.e. of a sports-ball team over another) are somehow… not.
Hear, hear! Well spoken, Bruce!
It’s the same principle as how rock and roll leads to Satanism & drugs, but country music is beyond reproach; it’s all about who listens to it.
I guess it’s only OK when counter-culture types do it. Man.
And I care intensely about dragons and superheroes, and I’m a goddamned sexual dynamo.
Still nebbish and poorly dressed, though.
this is pretty much the bill maher argument just more broadly applied …
Jocks play sports. Old jocks watch young jocks play sports.
Nerds create. Old nerds still create while helping young nerds create.
Of course nerds dominate American culture.
None of the guys I pushed into the mud or threw their books in the creek laughed even once!
Huh, go figure, as your contributions here strike me as coming from a happy, well-adjusted, balanced person, doubtless with a wealth of close, supportive friends and a thriving, fulfilling professional career and personal life.
I thought the “nerds” could still be serious scholars, whereas the “geeks” are the ones obsessed with cars, video games, comics, or anything not sufficiently mainstream or important.
Aren’t those among the biggest factors in “people moving from the UK to what would eventually become the US”, as well? Did the people who invented the stories of St George and the Dragon, or of the Dragon of Aralar, play tabletop games?
Nerds are not happy people? I rarely see Bill Gates without a huge smile.
Professional journalists, now those are some unhappy people. And no wonder, with nerds making more of them redundant!