I’m a geek by nature, not culture.
I’ve noticed something hilarious since geek went mainstream. It’s probably the same thing that happens when anything else suddenly becomes popular, but since I’ve always been out on the fringes this is the first time I’ve really seen it.
That would be geek poseurs. Not geek groupies, who admit they aren’t geeks themselves but find the whole deal cool as all Hell, but pretenders to geekage.
Talking about clods who watch terrible science fiction because they heard all the cool geeks (read: “fellow poseurs”) liked it. Stuff like Lexx or Stargate: Atlantis. They know nothing of the writer’s craft, plot development, characterization, using fiction as a vehicle to explore deeper topics, or anything like that. They just see “ZOMG BOOBIES!!!1!!” or “ZOMG TEH CHARACTER IS TEH KEWLIES!!11!” despite the character being trite beyond belief, and the show itself being simply terrible in pretty much every way except the physical endowments of one of the female cast members.
Talking about “leet gamers” whose primary concern is frame rate in the latest Call of Duty on their XBox, think Skyrim is the best, most original medieval fantasy game ever made, and who have no clue Fallout even existed before Fallout 3. Or who act like they’re ultra-nerdy roleplayers because they picked up D&D 5th edition and have mastered all it’s “complexities.”
Talking about comic book nerds who think Iron Man got his armor in Iraq, Doctor Doom is made of metal and shoots lightning bolts from his hands, Peter Parker only had the Venom suit for about a week and a half (and that he got it on Earth!), etc.
Talking about “philosophers” whose idea of depth is rehashing Euthyphro yet again because all the cool kids are doing it (especially atheists. If you can’t figure out why I openly mock atheist “philosophers” for taking the Euthyphro dilemma seriously, you probably don’t really know what an atheist is), have dismissed Nietzche as an asshole (and anyone who thinks he made a few good points as a psychopath) while proudly quoting “that which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger” on their Facebook profile, and when confronted with the phrase “don’t quote some dead guy, tell me what you think” look at you like you’re from Mars.
And don’t get me started on the people who think Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is some kind of Ultimate Nerd Movie because it has the obligatory token references to mainstream geek culture. Even Big Bang Theory is geekier than that drivel.
You get the point. They aren’t geeks, they’re trendwhores and geek is just the latest trend for them to follow. Maybe they have a bit of geek in them, but that’s like calling me a huge acid rock fan because I have a few Ozzy tunes on my phone.
It gets truly amusing when these poseurs try to demand actual geeks show their “geek cred” by emulating their feeble pop culture attempts at geekage. I got a job a few years back by telling the story about how I built a radio when I was six years old. The second CD in my car’s changer was a collection of anime music, and the first was the Avenue Q soundtrack. The MP3 player I listen to at work is populated with some of the weirdest music you’ve ever heard of and a pile of educational audiobooks, plus a metric buttload of Udemy lectures. I build robots, have been programming computers since I was eight years old, have run successful online businesses, have taught myself a variety of scientific subjects for fun, grew up on Captain Kirk and William Hartnell’s Doctor, played (and ran) original AD&D, and designed my own (terrible) D&D derivative when I was seven years old. All of this before it was anywhere near socially acceptable. I also run my own web design and coding business, and a gaming (computer and tabletop RPG) company. These clods are roughly as geek as some white kid from rural South Dakota is street. The best part is when they demand real nerds show proper “geek cred” while proudly displaying the quote from Simon Pegg about what it is to be a nerd. If only they understood the concept of irony.
The only thing I can think of that compares is what I imagine classic rock fans feel when some clueless dolt tries to tell them Justin Bieber or One Direction are musical geniuses.