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Is “nerd” such a negative thing anymore? Seems like its been watered down to mean “I play at least one video game”.
I use the term “classic nerd” for what was once “nerd” because I havent found another word that covers it.
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Submitted 1 year ago by Stamets@startrek.website to risa@startrek.website
Comments
emptyother@programming.dev 1 year ago
Got_Bent@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Forty years later, people figured out that the nerds were making more money than God. Then nerd wasn’t such a bad thing.
pjhenry1216@kbin.social 1 year ago
This is so confusing. Are you saying "classic nerd" is negative then? Your wording is kind of ambiguous. I don't think "nerd" has been watered down, just isn't very negative in the mainstream. I'd say it just means you're very enthusiastic about a certain topic. I don't think folks would call someone who just plays one video game a nerd, unless it's only one video game and they are super into it, like a "WoW nerd" maybe.
I don't think there's any need to gatekeep "nerd" though and require any additional qualifiers on it like "classic". Just seems like you're trying to say "actual" without sounding elitist about it.
sanpedropeddler@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
I don’t think they mean it to be negative. I assumed they mean its used more loosely now and has lost some of the meaning it used to have as a result. They can’t find a more fitting word for what they want to say, so they just specify they mean the stricter definition of the word nerd.
gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Nerd is a compliment as far as I’m concerned.
emptyother@programming.dev 1 year ago
It wasnt when and where I grew up. The stereotype was still the “Revenge of the nerds” or “Steve Urkel”. But I kinda took the label as a shield when people used it on me and I learned what it meant. Why should I be ashamed of enjoying digging into computers and programming? Why would enjoying books or non-mainstream comics be such a negative thing? Why would playing more advanced video games be sad? Or finding math fun? And why was I the only one who would admit to enjoying it at school? I know a few people had some shared interest, but they never spoke of it at school. Also why yell out loudly that whatever I was lost in was utterly boring to them? And when reaching the next level of education and meeting people LIKE ME, the nerd label hardened. They were nerds, I was nerd. I learned about roleplaying games, MTG, even more advanced video games, that stuff that seemed was the domain of most nerds.
The nerd label meant someone who had multiple interests into stuff that average people called “boring”. Finding people who called themselves nerds meant that they very likely shared some interests with me, or could teach me something new I would find interesting. So I am still a bit sore that people who bullied me for being a nerd later proudly declare themselves nerds for ONLY playing such a simple game as World of Warcraft when that was popular. It is about using a word for what seemed like it had its own meaning back then, who now have become a synonym for “gamer”.
/u/pjhenry1216@kbin.social I dont consider that gate-keeping. I would welcome all and any to enjoy the things nerds enjoy. I just want to have a name for the subculture I joined and found belonging in. Words like goth have meaning still, and it isnt gatekeeping to assume it means people who enjoys dressing in all-black.
GigglyBobble@kbin.social 1 year ago
Even today I think nerd still involves some kind of obsession though.
Anyone could be into LOTR, especially after the movies came out. But it's kinda nerdy to have heated discussions whether or not leaving out Tom Bombadil was the right call (it wasn't!).
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
I’ve seen someone on a dating app describe herself as a “gym nerd”. It hurt my soul a bit
sederx@programming.dev 1 year ago
Idk but I now react like they said the N word and I gaslight them into feeling bad for using a slur.
Hilarious
TopShelfVanilla@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Geek is the non-pejorative form of nerd, I believe.
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
To me, geek means someone that is obsessed over something non-harmful.
Movies, books, boardgames, video games, cosplay, anime, math, computers, applications, …
A nerd is a geek who made the obsession their job. Like a professional geek.
dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
I mean, they obviously don’t know all of that. Haters think Star Trek is just people in bad costumes jerking each other off.
pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Hey it can be about many things
MashedTech@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Sounds hot, where is that?
LillyPip@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
Enterprise was basically softcore porn.
Corgana@startrek.website 1 year ago
Two years ago during the big /r/NNN protest I met major resistence from other reddit mods in regards to taking our subreddits private. I knew someone had to stick their neck out first if we were going to get the Reddit admins to care about our protest. Many mods were worried about upsetting their users by making waves.
I slept on the decision and woke up early thinking to myself “Wait a minute, these are Trekkies I’m dealing with, the most rambunctious group of policically nerdy fans I can think of. Trekkies stand up to bullies and they do it together. Of course they’ll stand by us if we do this.”
I reached out to the Daystrom mods asking if they’d join us in going private and they were immediatley in. Same for Risa and the Discovery mods and many other mods of many small Trek subs.
While the protest didn’t achieve the goals I wanted and I ultimatley quit the site altogether, we definitley made some big waves, and it was all because Trekkies weren’t afraid to do what’s right, it really stuck with me the power fans of a “silly 60 year old TV show” can have.
sloppy_diffuser@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Love Star Trek and a lot of Sci-Fi for this reason. Just finished binge watching Strange New Worlds where standing up for what is right is a core tenant of the crew. In contrast, one of the recent Ashoka episodes really hit me with the quote “sometimes even the right reasons have the wrong consequences”. It really sums up my experience in the world we live in and where we could be.
UlyssesT@hexbear.net 1 year ago
I needed to see this today. sicko-wholesome
all4one@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
For someone that has never watched any star trek what should I start off watching?
axont@hexbear.net 1 year ago
I’d suggest going through a list of the best TNG episodes
winterayars@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
TNG, start with the second season. If that’s a too preachy and perfect for you try DS9.
negativenull@lemm.ee 1 year ago
WWSTD?
What Would Star Trek Do?Snowyday@startrek.website 1 year ago
Picard on one shoulder, Garak on the other shoulder
Riker on the bed with his pants off
Haggers@startrek.website 1 year ago
I got myself a career where nerd is a prerequisite, and a nerdophilic gf. Nerd and proud!
tetris11@kbin.social 1 year ago
The same can be said for Naruto fans, or Bleach fans, or any fandom with a long-lasting history.
People roll their eyes because they watch an episode or two and think "this is basic level convoluted drama", and they're completely right. But they haven't seen the history, the implied context to which these dramas came to be, and what these characters have overcome to get to where they are now.dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Shonen series are for children, it’s literally in the name.
trashgirlfriend@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Ok but Naruto is pretty trashy compared to Star Trek.
Not a bad thing, it’s just a kids/teenagers show mostly.
fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Seriously, they think I turned off Naruto because of the basic drama? No, I turned it off because hearing the orange jumpsuit ninja(???) Talk for 5 seconds made my ears crave chopsticks.
emptyother@programming.dev 1 year ago
Still nerdy if one also enjoy other anime stuff more than the average person. I consider anime nerds as nerds.
imPastaSyndrome@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Not really… Especially for most of the points that it made.
Exactly what social issues did bleach or Naruto cover like real social issues. Not (NARUTO SPOILERS)
it’s hard being a kid with a demonfox soul inside you, or “my brother killed my family but didn’t really. He was actually trying to make me super strong so that I could avenge my family and the only way he thought that would happen was if he wanted a revenge on me”…
deezbutts@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Millions inspired to be better? A phenomena?
axont@hexbear.net 1 year ago
A lot of nerds became doctors and aerospace scientists and stuff because of Star Trek
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 year ago
I’m sure there probably even a few that were influenced negatively and became Ferenghi-like.
UlyssesT@hexbear.net 1 year ago
Negative and positive influence is very real from entertainment, no matter how some people deny it.
Trek has by and large been a positive influence on a lot of people.
ProxyTheAwesome@hexbear.net 1 year ago
trek hasn’t been about any of that shit for at least a couple decades. It’s just star wars with a coat of paint at this point
Honytawk@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
You should watch Strange News Worlds then.
TrashGoblin@hexbear.net 1 year ago
jopepa@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Fine I’ll watch it already!
Stamets@startrek.website 1 year ago
One of us!
Don’t worry we have bloodwine and cookies.
Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Problem is for a long time the heaviest trekkies, the really visible ones, were usually not about the idealism at all.
For every quiet idealist who dreams of a better future there’s a loud closet fascist who only sees the uniforms, a militarized society with clear chains of authority, a Vulcan philosophy where cold logic overrides empathy, and where the advanced humans swashbuckle about the universe showing the natives their place.
It’s getting better now but back in the day Trek fandom was rough and it’s taking a lot to shake the image.
Stamets@startrek.website 1 year ago
Dude, what? I’ve never heard, and I’m guessing most people haven’t heard, of the Trek fandom being seen as fascist or zealous. Especially not the ‘heaviest Trekkies’. Are there some who are like that? Absolutely. I’ve met a fair few through Elite Dangerous, as sad as that is, but it’s certainly not the majority. Definitely not enough to have colored the entire movement that way. ESPECIALLY when the major Trek cast constantly push the idealism.
Seems to be the only one who’s having a hard time shaking the image is you… The rest of us are hearing this for the first time.
myusernameblows@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Not me, I grew up with one of those people and he was awful. And because he was the only Trekkie in the whole town, pretty much everyone I grew up with has a terrible opinion of star trek and its fans. I bet a lot of the negative perception of the show comes from people like that. They’re not that common, but neither are outspoken star trek fans in general, so most people probably have a pretty equal chance of meeting either type of fan.
Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I never said it was the majority, I said the heaviest most vocal ones.
kuneho@lemmy.world 1 year ago
but how can one enjoy Star Trek without those? I mean, that’s the meat and potatoes of it
Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Same way they watch The Boys thinking Homelander is the hero