# Nerds are Smothering American Culture!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977 "2019-03-11T23:30:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/41 "2019-03-13T15:44:33Z")
> [@](#): > > …a crucial general point about nerds: they are not happy people. There were good reasons why there was a stigma around being a nerd; those who loved stories about dragons and superheroes into adulthood tended to be nebbish, poorly-tailored and sexually inadequate. > [@Loach](#): > > I resent that. I’ve been told I’m adequate. Well clearly the original quote got it wrong, He should have added ‘gullible’ as well. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/42 "2019-03-13T17:49:32Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? One created a monopoly on shitty software. The other was a pretentious asshole who created pretentious mobile devices for assholes. Let’s not forget Mark Zuckerberg who invented a way for every annoying person from high school to annoy you forever. Travis Kalanick created an unprofitable ride-share company known for its creepy rape-culture. Probably from an idea he had one time driving around looking for women to be creepy with. > [@MrDibble](#): > > I don’t know about America, but I was never bullied or even made fun of for nerdy pursuits in high school. Being into comics, Tolkien, computers and science were not social blockers where I grew up. Hell, it was a sporty kid who introduced me to Pratchett… Yeah, it’s not really as cut and dried as they portray it on TV and movies. At least not at my elementary/middle/high school. I was friends/neighbors with these two brothers growing up who were huge into “nerd culture” stuff. Even by 1980s standards. Role playing games, videogames, computers, toy collections, prog rock, Heavy Metal (music and magazine), anime, the biggest comic book collection I’ve ever seen. But they were also into varsity sports like hockey, football, and track & field. The older brother was pretty well liked. The younger one, not as much. But that was because he tended to act a little weird and jerky. In contrast, the older brother was just this really nice big guy. Anyhow, the point is I don’t think people like or dislike people because of their interests. At least, not beyond those interests serving as a sort of shared connection. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/43 "2019-03-13T18:10:06Z")
Nerds are smart guys to programs computers and build robots Geeks are people who are way too into one thing like comics or games Dorks are the ones with no social skills You can mix and match from the three categories. A geek is way into movies but a Geek/Dork is going to bore you with talking about the movies and missing the social cues that no one gives a rat’s ass. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/44 "2019-03-13T18:11:53Z")
> [@CaptMurdock](#): > > [Tim Allen stand-up voice] > > Yeah, nerds are sick, maladjusted, sad individuals. > > Too bad we own the world! Hahahahaha! **AHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAH!** > > [/] > > 😃 Until a bully comes along and takes it from you. ---
**Author:** ![Wrenching\_Spanners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecb155/32.png) [@Wrenching\_Spanners](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wrenching_Spanners)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/45 "2019-03-13T18:26:27Z")
> [@](#): > > Zombies, androids, vampires, wizards, aliens, werewolves, intergalactic sagas, Lego, H.P. Lovecraft, Tolkien, board games based on TV shows – though these things were never unpopular per se, they always belonged to children, or to people at the lonelier fringes of the culture. Now they are the culture. I think a big difference between a few decades ago and now is the quality of the product. I watched cartoons and read comic books as a kid. I pretty much stopped as a teenager because I lost interest. But I’m now back to doing both because the current-day product is so much better. But if I go and look at a cartoon or comic book that’s supposed to be a classic, I find I don’t have any more interest than I did as a teenager. ---
**Author:** ![hopesperson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@hopesperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hopesperson)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/46 "2019-03-13T18:47:16Z")
Betty: Oh, you were wonderful. Are all nerds as good as you? Lewis: Yes. Betty: How come? Lewis: 'Cause all jocks ever think about is sports, all we ever think about is sex. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/47 "2019-03-13T19:02:12Z")
The Internet has greatly magnified the tendency, which has always existed, for like-minded individuals to bloviate about their interests. So what if sports or superheroes are hugely popular. American culture is a pretty big and broad piece of tapestry. There may be a lot of superhero movies or books about zombies, but it’s not like other topics get ignored. I am old enough to find the differentiation between geeks and nerds self-serving. I never felt persecuted for liking Tolkien, trigonometry or They Might Be Giants at a time when geekdom could have consequences. Of course, I played some sports tolerably well and had as many friends as I wanted. Other parts of geekdom such as superheroes held little interest to me. I liked Star Wars and Shatner enough, but not to the point of obsession or even thinking the later efforts were very good. “The mythical angry nerd” exists in the sense of being intolerant to the opinions of others. Maybe even thinking the last Star Wars movies were incredibly brilliant. People in general seem somewhat angrier than in the past as anonymous trolling and politicians and media folks pushing the limits have eroded some degree of politeness or mutual respect or common sense of humanity. It’s not all about you. Or Ironman. Or the zombie apocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/48 "2019-03-13T19:05:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I agree with this. Today “geek” just implies being a fanatic about some subject and having specialized knowledge. You can be a geek and still be (mostly) cool. > > Being a nerd originally just indicated someone who was uncool and a social misfit. Today it has gained the implication that someone is also smart, but the main criterion is being unhip. After thinking back about it a little more, I started wondering how dorks and spazzes fit into all this… ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/49 "2019-03-13T21:04:27Z")
> [@hopesperson](#): > > Betty: Oh, you were wonderful. Are all nerds as good as you? > Lewis: Yes. > Betty: How come? > Lewis: 'Cause all jocks ever think about is sports, all we ever think about is sex. ## That quote is from a scene in a hateful, vile, depraved and bigoted movie (“Revenge Of The Nerds”) that glamourizes, trivializes and positively celebrates rape by deception. “She’s not that kind of girl, Booger.” “Why, does she have a penis?” ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/50 "2019-03-13T21:12:40Z")
So here’s a question - what’s the deal with the stereotypical “Silicon Valley tech startup office culture”? I have a phone interview tomorrow with an analytics company and to prepare, they asked me to watch a couple videos about their office. It was the typical mix of goofy 20-somethings dressed like slobs in T-shirts with the foosball tables and beer in the office and all of them jammed together surrounded by white boards covered in Post-it notes (Kanban I presume). Like why does every company that deal with computers or data adopt that style? Like they are trying to ease everyone into the working world by making their office look like the weird “quiet dorm” in college that all the frat guys used to throw eggs at. Other industries have smart people. They don’t dress like that. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/51 "2019-03-13T21:18:27Z")
Almost nobody actually likes wearing a dress shirt and tie. Wearing a dress shirt and tie in no way leads to one creating better software. Highly-skilled software developers are in high demand. Given that, like anyone else, they don’t like wearing dress clothes, you stand a better chance of attracting the top talent by not requiring them to wear dress clothes. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/52 "2019-03-13T21:23:41Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Until a bully comes along and takes it from you. Later said Bully’s credit score is mysterious in the teens… 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/53 "2019-03-13T21:34:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Almost nobody actually likes wearing a dress shirt and tie. Wearing a dress shirt and tie in no way leads to one creating better software. Highly-skilled software developers are in high demand. Given that, like anyone else, they don’t like wearing dress clothes, you stand a better chance of attracting the top talent by not requiring them to wear dress clothes. Anecdotally, at another technology firm where I worked, we had two guys who only wore suits and ties. That was just their thing. Personally, I think you should only have to wear a suit if you get paid enough to buy suits that cost around $1000 or more (not counting sales and whatnot). I think cheaper suits tend to look cheap. So if you can’t have your people wear nice suits, then there really is no point in having them wear suits at all. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look put together. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/54 "2019-03-13T21:50:07Z")
Similarly, when I was in grad school, a few of the other students decided that, since grad students can dress like slobs whenever we like, we ought to have dress-up Fridays. And so they wore three-piece suits and so on every Friday. Rejecting rules just for the sake of rejecting them is a not uncommon attitude among nerds. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/55 "2019-03-13T22:22:57Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Until a bully comes along and takes it from you. They won’t know what to do with it, and they will probably end up just breaking it. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/56 "2019-03-13T22:28:01Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > One created a monopoly on shitty software. > The other was a pretentious asshole who created pretentious mobile devices for assholes. > > Let’s not forget Mark Zuckerberg who invented a way for every annoying person from high school to annoy you forever. > > Travis Kalanick created an unprofitable ride-share company known for its creepy rape-culture. Probably from an idea he had one time driving around looking for women to be creepy with. No one claimed that nerds and geeks were _nice_ people. They frequently ARE creepy, maladjusted, socially awkward… And some of them became filthy, filthy rich. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2019, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/57 "2019-03-13T23:13:09Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > No one claimed that nerds and geeks were _nice_ people. They frequently ARE creepy, maladjusted, socially awkward… > > And some of them became filthy, filthy rich. People who found multi-billion dollar companies are rarely nice guys. Remember, while Gates, Jobs and Zuckerberg may have their issues, at least they’re not Henry Ford. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/58 "2019-03-14T21:11:01Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > No one claimed that nerds and geeks were _nice_ people. They frequently ARE creepy, maladjusted, socially awkward… > > And some of them became filthy, filthy rich. Right, and now they are using their wealth and power to infuse their creepy, maladjusted, awkward nerd-rage into every aspect of American culture. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/59 "2019-03-14T22:15:17Z")
As opposed to the creepy, maladjusted, awkward jock-rage and creepy, maladjusted, awkward frat-rage and creepy, maladjusted, awkward preppy-rage and creepy, maladjusted, awkward macho-rage that previous filthy rich people have infused. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977/60 "2019-03-14T22:32:44Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Nerds are smart guys to programs computers and build robots > Geeks are people who are way too into one thing like comics or games > Dorks are the ones with no social skills > > You can mix and match from the three categories. A geek is way into movies but a Geek/Dork is going to bore you with talking about the movies and missing the social cues that no one gives a rat’s ass. You left out another category: wonks. Wonks are like nerds and geeks except they’re into government, law, and politics. You can easily spot them since they’re the ones who watch C-SPAN for fun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nerds-are-smothering-american-culture/830977.md?page=4)