You fuckers are making this cat sad.This is something I've gotta talk about. Something that I have to get off my chest. Today I got into a semi-argument about whether or not Lucky Star (a show I have admittedly not seen much of) is more of a pandering otaku series than Azumanga Daioh, and whether it even matters. Long story short, the conversation brought up something that's bothered me about nerds ever since I started on the dark, bizarre path of dork hobbies. That something is the "geek hierarchy" phenomenon. More to the point, how vicious and willing to form cliques many geeks are.
My theory has always been that if "nerd" meant "people who wear red or blue shirts", the blue shirted kids would be constantly looking down their noses at the red shirted kids. The kids with red shirts and white stripes would be the constant butt of the solid red shirted kids' internet meme jokes. And then it'd just keep breaking down to microscopic levels from there. I should know, being an anime fan. Now, I'm definitely not an old standby in anime fandom, being someone who came in with the Pokemon crowd. But I've heard the stories of the old old old days of fandom (mainly thanks to AWOs numerous interviews with OLD PEOPLE). I've heard all about the sci fi con staff looking down their noses at those kids and their "jap crap" cartoons in the viewing room way the fuck in the back of the con. Oldschool anime fans know all about this kind of shit.
And yet it's anime fans that set off this post, really. The person (who shall remain nameless, and probably does not read this blog) was very obviously part of this very specific generation of anime fans who came in after the Starblazers and Battle of the Planets guys but long before Gundam Wing and DBZ brought in the new crowd. I've noticed that a lot of this sort of geek clique tendency as it pertains to anime fandom mostly comes from these type of people. 20 year olds who already sound like 50 year old literary sci fi con jerks. Can't stand those dirty 15 year old yaoi fangirls; the Naruto headband crowd; the cat ears, the Yaoi paddles and, of course, the handwritten signs. I hear this a lot from this 3rd (4th?) generation set of fans, as well as the neophytes who've grafted onto Fast Karate and AWO within the last few years and decided to violently turn their backs on anime fandom and be cool people.
And I definetly don't mean that as a diss on said podcasts. But the whole fandom around those two seems to have created this bizaro new breed of anime fan, most of whom are in high school or maybe early college and have already adopted a curmudgeon old man approach to a fandom that's existed far longer than they have. It's an attitude that I've always taken as somewhat joking in those podcasts, but which is a very real attitude elsewhere. A certain member of the Fast Karate forums mentioned how he'd like to pile drive one of those "stupid headband-wearing freaks" into the ground. I like to think of myself as pretty good at noticing internet sarcasm. I don't think any of that was present in the post.
And it is prevalent in every other nerd culture you can think of. Video games are another example. The stereotypical hardcore AMURICAN gamer with an Xbox and a Halo book in his backpack is at all times disgusted with your average dweeb who swears by Squeenix and Level 5. Play Guild Wars, and you can expect some thrown stones from WoW players. And you can bet it's vice versa there. You can even go beyond video games. You have old sci fi fans who won't except anyone into their circle who isn't lugging around an oxygen tank. It's cross-hobby as well, when you consider that the aforementioned gamers usually aren't so kind to that "weaboo cartoon shit". Literary sci-fi fans used to (and still do) hate those newbie Star Trek fans and their high tech "moving pictures". You even see it with those retards who try to come up with concrete differences between what "geek"means and what "nerd" means so they can affirm themselves as being part of the cool club. And then everyone has a good laugh at the expense of furries, but we'll leave it at that.
So I guess all I'm asking is that we try not to be such douches to people who aren't exactly like us. I don't mean to sound like I'm down on nerds, cause I'm absolutely not. I'm a card-carrying member of the geek squad, and I fully admit that dickheaded behavior is present in all walks of life. It's just when it's like this, you know? So fucking lame and petty. Who are you trying to kid? We're all dorks here. It doesn't matter how cool you think you are outside of your nerdy hobbies, you're still no better than anyone else in this scenario. Can't we at least try to get along?
My theory has always been that if "nerd" meant "people who wear red or blue shirts", the blue shirted kids would be constantly looking down their noses at the red shirted kids. The kids with red shirts and white stripes would be the constant butt of the solid red shirted kids' internet meme jokes. And then it'd just keep breaking down to microscopic levels from there. I should know, being an anime fan. Now, I'm definitely not an old standby in anime fandom, being someone who came in with the Pokemon crowd. But I've heard the stories of the old old old days of fandom (mainly thanks to AWOs numerous interviews with OLD PEOPLE). I've heard all about the sci fi con staff looking down their noses at those kids and their "jap crap" cartoons in the viewing room way the fuck in the back of the con. Oldschool anime fans know all about this kind of shit.
And yet it's anime fans that set off this post, really. The person (who shall remain nameless, and probably does not read this blog) was very obviously part of this very specific generation of anime fans who came in after the Starblazers and Battle of the Planets guys but long before Gundam Wing and DBZ brought in the new crowd. I've noticed that a lot of this sort of geek clique tendency as it pertains to anime fandom mostly comes from these type of people. 20 year olds who already sound like 50 year old literary sci fi con jerks. Can't stand those dirty 15 year old yaoi fangirls; the Naruto headband crowd; the cat ears, the Yaoi paddles and, of course, the handwritten signs. I hear this a lot from this 3rd (4th?) generation set of fans, as well as the neophytes who've grafted onto Fast Karate and AWO within the last few years and decided to violently turn their backs on anime fandom and be cool people.
And I definetly don't mean that as a diss on said podcasts. But the whole fandom around those two seems to have created this bizaro new breed of anime fan, most of whom are in high school or maybe early college and have already adopted a curmudgeon old man approach to a fandom that's existed far longer than they have. It's an attitude that I've always taken as somewhat joking in those podcasts, but which is a very real attitude elsewhere. A certain member of the Fast Karate forums mentioned how he'd like to pile drive one of those "stupid headband-wearing freaks" into the ground. I like to think of myself as pretty good at noticing internet sarcasm. I don't think any of that was present in the post.
And it is prevalent in every other nerd culture you can think of. Video games are another example. The stereotypical hardcore AMURICAN gamer with an Xbox and a Halo book in his backpack is at all times disgusted with your average dweeb who swears by Squeenix and Level 5. Play Guild Wars, and you can expect some thrown stones from WoW players. And you can bet it's vice versa there. You can even go beyond video games. You have old sci fi fans who won't except anyone into their circle who isn't lugging around an oxygen tank. It's cross-hobby as well, when you consider that the aforementioned gamers usually aren't so kind to that "weaboo cartoon shit". Literary sci-fi fans used to (and still do) hate those newbie Star Trek fans and their high tech "moving pictures". You even see it with those retards who try to come up with concrete differences between what "geek"means and what "nerd" means so they can affirm themselves as being part of the cool club. And then everyone has a good laugh at the expense of furries, but we'll leave it at that.
So I guess all I'm asking is that we try not to be such douches to people who aren't exactly like us. I don't mean to sound like I'm down on nerds, cause I'm absolutely not. I'm a card-carrying member of the geek squad, and I fully admit that dickheaded behavior is present in all walks of life. It's just when it's like this, you know? So fucking lame and petty. Who are you trying to kid? We're all dorks here. It doesn't matter how cool you think you are outside of your nerdy hobbies, you're still no better than anyone else in this scenario. Can't we at least try to get along?
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