So, it’s been a while since I wrote some long ass post about some nonsense that bothers me on here, so I’m back to do that more. This time: nerd elitism. Also, I seriously don’t expect anyone will actually read this, so don’t feel bad if you skip.
I pretty frequently see people bitching that “OH, SOME JACKASS JUST TOLD ME I DON’T REALLY LOVE X/Y/Z NERDY THING BECAUSE I DIDN’T READ THE COMICS/MEMORIZE THE CHARACTERS MIDDLE NAMES/CARE ABOUT IT UNTIL LAST YEAR! WELL, FUCK YOU, GUY, YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO CARE ABOUT!”
Well, clearly, this is clown shoes retarded on multiple levels.
1) What a ridiculous thing to lose your shit about. Of course they can’t tell you what to like, that’s insane. Someone you don’t know basically called you a name, but it’s worth totally making a huge deal out of, right? Of all the things in the world to throw a fit over, someone not believing your ardent and undying love for some nerd shit is at the top? Seriously? Grow up. And they should too.
2) As I get older, I realize that people are more and more of total fucking failures at expressing themselves (you like how I used an expletive there instead of finding a more eloquent and interesting way of conveying degree?). People seem so extreme these days. “Oh, That Nerd Show?! Yeah, I LOOOOVE that show!” But… do you? Do you really LOVE it? I’m a total dork (not saying I’m dorkier than you or I’m an authority, I just like a lot of dorky shit) and I don’t LOOOOOVE everything nerdy. Maybe you just enjoy that show. Or maybe you like it and want to learn more. Or maybe you do lurve it, like you want to have omg like a bajillion of its babies. I don’t know. You do though, and you should probably present it that way. Be accurate. Use words that mean things. Don’t make everything a hyperbole.
3) Admit ignorance. This goes for everything. Ever. In all of life. Unless someone asks if you’re a god. Anyway, if you just admit that you don’t know everything about something, people are generally pretty cool. Many a time have I spoken with another nerd about something he LOVED, but I really liked. Maybe you should just be upfront and admit you just really like it. If a nerd goes, “I LOVE X-Men!” and you say “I LOVE it too!”, well, they may challenge you, if they don’t believe you. Is it stupid that they do that? Yeah. But that likely won’t stop them. If you both LOVE it, great, you’re nerd-mates now. But if you tell them you LOVE X-Men and that your favorite one is “the hot blonde from the movie, Mystic or something,” well, you kind of asked for it.
If someone asks you about The Walking Dead, and you say, “I like the show, but I’ve never read the comics,” they will likely give you some good info like, “if you would prefer it to be darker than the show, definitely read the comics,” or something like that. If someone says to me, “Tim, I have ventured some into Linux and I think it’s interesting,” I’ll give it my all to understand what they like about it and maybe point them in the direction of other things they may like to play with in it, etc.
The key is this: if you just admit what you don’t know, people who do know will likely be more than happy to help guide you in finding cool shit to check out. It’s a situation in which everyone wins. They get to be helpful and talk about stuff that they’re really passionate about. You get some info in finding what other things or further study may be of most interest to you. Yay everyone.
4) Why are you running around telling everyone else? This happens. Pretty frequently. You’re just cluttering up the signal with your bitching about something that really doesn’t belong on the internet in the first place. You think anyone out there isn’t aware the nerd elitism happens? You think anyone reads that and goes, “Hey, honey, would you look at this!? Apparently nerds are verbally assaulting each other like hot cakes!”? (also, if you caught that reference, let’s get married). We know it happens. Please, go text your friend, or your nerd sponsor, or your mom. Let’s try to take an active role in filling the Internet with fewer negative and ineffectual word seizures and try to actually offer something of value. Do you still feel the burning need to call attention to it? Write an article and try to get some views to it. No one is going to read your all caps tweet and then go out and never be a nerd elitist jerk again.
5) People can be total assholes. Yes, many people (once properly motivated… see #3) will appeal to their better nature and try to help you. But some people are just fucking gigantic twat waffle wastes of fucking energy and air and poopoojillions of minutes that people as a whole have had to spend interacting with them. There’s really nothing to do about it. Maybe they are just hateful or maybe they didn’t masturbate fervently enough in early high school, or maybe their right testicle is miniscule and they were made fun of all through college. I don’t know. But some people are DICKS and there’s no way around it. So really, just understand that people will occasionally be total asshats to you and do your best not to let it affect you. People will hurt your feelings. I’m sorry about that. If I ever do it, please tell me so I can apologize, I assure you it’s not my intention… but just know, there are jerks out there.
Anyway, there are my 2 (maybe more like 8) cents. It’s pretty late (for me, damn 3rd shift) and I’m tired, so if I have forty metronomodons of errors in spelling or grammar, sorry about that.
