Nerd Rebuttal

Jo wrote a pretty long rant about nerdiness today. I can’t say that I totally agree with her on this one - I think maybe Jo was never in the truly nerdy social class enough to appreciate it’s inner workings. In my experience, there is indeed a interior caste system in the “nerd world”. First of all, you have different categories like band nerd, Star Trek nerd, academic nerd, etc. Although you may have to examine the subtle differences between the words “nerd” and “geek” to truly classify some of these categories correctly.

To answer Jo’s basic question “why are people proud of being nerds”, I believe that it is because some of us are proud of the differences that others point to when derisively applying the label “nerd”. Certainly, I think intelligence isn’t something to be ashamed of, and that the catagorization of the most intelligent into a derogatory class is mainly based on jealosy. And as for social ineptness, things like inattention to fads, kindness to other unpopular people, lack of innate athletic ability, and so forth are not inherrantly bad things either. So, I think people that are proud to be nerds are simply happy with who they are and chose to view the label others thrust on them as a affirmation of their personal choices rather than dwelling on what other people think.

On a completely different topic, this quiz is fun - I think it nailed me, although I wasn’t quite sure how to answer the “Y’all” question. I’m really trying hard not to pick that one up. If I ever get to move back west, I’ll get teased for that mercilessly.

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

15% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Midwestern

0% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?