There is nothing more potent or effective at raising one’s ire for nerds and geeks than listening to them talk when they think they’re around their peers. Maybe this is true for just about everyone, but what I find so annoying is this facade of “the misunderstood genius” which is used to justify the most ridiculous behavior. However, this isn’t some new revelation- The Social Network made geeks less sympathetic than ever without exaggerating into the realm of mad science. What is really worrying to me is that this social group is actually getting dumber.
I think the catalyst for this post was seeing how people reacted to the Casey Haynes video. This video spread rapidly and for obvious reasons. With content like a heavy-set kid getting revenge on a bully in a novel way that is reminiscent of a video game, how could it not go viral? When it spread, the buzz could largely be summed up “Yeah! That kid got what he deserved!”. Deserved or not, the discussion online was not lead by intelligent people bringing up thoughtful arguments. This wasn’t worthy of people who considered themselves intellectually elite, this was just… bad. I don’t know how else to describe when a large group of people cheer at the sight of a kid’s neck hitting concrete.