I am a proud geek. However, I have to admit that we (and I) have a dark side.
Probably the best thing about Buzzfeed is the compilations of internet comics it occasionally produces. A recent one by Kevin Tang concerned the danger of becoming a ‘geek bully.’ For all my love of geek culture, I agree there does lurk within it a tendency to bully.
We geeks might see ourselves as a picked upon minority. This is how we see our relation with the rest of the world:
But often we can wind up behaving like this:
Yes, we generally are the kids who get beaten up at school but in the adult world things are different. As a group, we are disproportionately well educated, middle class, white and male. And with that comes quite a bit of privilege. A fact only amplified by us improbably coming to dominate huge chunks of popular culture.
What results can often be a toxic combination of grievance and power. I’ve observed this manifest itself in a number of ways:
- Snobbery – if you prefer soaps to sci-fi or have not read any H.P Lovecraft the chances of a geek judging you are pretty high. Sometimes this is partially justified: geek culture often has an integrity and depth that more mainstream fare lacks. However, this can (and often is) just about deciding who’s in our gang and who isn’t.
- Misogyny – Geekdom is a subculture that’s not always hospitable for women. To give a little example, I once heard the contributors to a gaming podcast my housemates were listening to have a discussion about how annoying it was when their games were interrupted by their ‘girls’ ringing. Part of the the problem is that for at least some nerds, women are an abstraction. The result can be that when they try and participate in geek culture, women are the victims of a fear of the unknown.
- Dodgy political views – reaching the conclusion that you are part of a minority that’s smarter than everyone else does rather incline one to authoritarian or undemocratic politics. Scratch the surface of many nerds and you find the desire for a technocratic elite to run the lives of ‘the herd.’ I’ve lost count of the number of times, I’ve heard suggestions that the state should regulate who should have children or that certain types of people don’t really need much education. I’d suggest there is a particular problem with science students who are very aware of technical possibilities but pretty ignorant of practical barriers. The result is that they misread the rejection of their pet policies as evidence of collective stupidity rather than their own naivety.
I am ashamed to admit that I’m far from immune from the potential for geekdom to elide into elitism – though I can plead not guilty to being a misogynist. I say that people should have passions but I will – for no very good reason – probably turn my nose up at you if your passion is watching sport. And my politics certainly has a technocratic streak in it
I feel I need to end on a caveat though. Geekdom is far from being irreparably damaged or worse than other subcultures. My writing this is a result of familiarity breeding contempt: I know this world, so I know its flaws. If the fact that it values imagination and intelligence encourages success that can congeal into arrogance; then that’s a bad element of something that is ultimately good. It is also a community that has the intellectual resources to critique its own flaws. However, geeks should not flatter ourselves by thinking that only jocks can be jerks. Sadly it is a universal temptation to which no subculture is immune.
Matter Of Facts 
actually what your what your basing this on is less factual and more based on what hollywood is talking about in the ways that is not true and if i was i would rather have more evidence on nerd really is and also in that comic strip of yours it`s kind of patronizing to real nerds are and rather i was you i would delve in fact more than fiction because of what hollywood does is that they tend to exaggerate things in movies and television shows
Hi Will,
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I’m sorry you found it wanting. As you can see it was written almost a decade ago. Were I writing it now, I’d probably put the caveats in the final paragraph nearer the start.
That said, I’d caution against believing the dynamic I describe is an invention of Hollywood or of anyone else. I’m a nerd myself and this is a subculture I know well. You’ll also notice that the sources I link to in order to support the article are also written/created by other nerds. Hence, this post draws on a lot of personal experience.
I’d also flag up what’s happened since I wrote this. There was Gamergate, which was essentially an attempt by some nerds to wrestle control of the sub-culture away from other nerds using bullying. Tech industries and other parts of the knowledge economy have continued to expand as shares of the overall economy. It’s often not been the people who like material things and physical activities who’ve gotten left behind in the transition. Given this, it’s probably fair to say there has never been a time when nerds have wielded greater power in society and, under these circumstance, it behooves nerds as a community to be self-reflective about how we can be better.