Genius/Idiots of the Day/Week/Month
A double whammy.
First the genius: http://www.rightwingnews.com/special/xyz.php
Now the idiots: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1568143 (Don't bother reading them all. There are far too many.)
Of particular humor value among the idiots is this guy: "So then, the right wing is now admitting that we're not fighting the war in Iraq because of 9/11. That means, then, that we're fighting it for the oil. It's always nice to see your opponents sabotage themselves."
Because, as we know, the only two possible reasons for going to war are 9/11 and oil. By that logic, WWII was fought over oil. In fact, every other war in human history except for Afghanistan was fought over oil. Even the Trojan wars, which were fought before oil was discovered.
It's sort of an ambiguous question to ask if the war in Iraq is because of 9/11. In one way it is, because 9/11 forced us to take a different view about foreign policiy and waiting for terrorists to strike. But on the other hand, we're not in Iraq because of any organizational ties they had to 9/11.
But anyways, this coupled with a number of other things (including this, this, this, and this) have made me begin to wonder something... why are most nerds liberal democrats? Is this merely a correlation or is there some causation involved? Are people from the left wing more likely to go online or are nerds more likely to adopt a liberal ideology? This is something I've spent quite a bit of time pondering in recent days. Why do none of the people whom I encounter online share my ideology?
I have come to notice some key areas where I differ from others of my kind. I don't know why this is, but it is something I've noticed. It seems that nerds tend to be atheists, or at least agnostic. They look down upon Christians, for the most part, as ignorant. They have completely embraced modern "morality". They have no sexual morals (fark, somethingawful, and bbspot all either now or at some point in the past have linked to porn). If you ever want to have fun, go on some online message board and post "homosexuality is disordered and sex outside of marriage is wrong." See how long it is before you get flamed off. Even though 70% of the nation agrees with that at least to some extent, 99% of the online community think you're ridiculous. And even those who are not politically on the left tend to be socially and morally on the left.
Anyways, why is this? Is my sample inaccurate? Are there actually a number of conservative christian geek websites that I just don't know about? Or is it really that the people who are most likely to join the internet community tend to have this ideology? And if so, why is that?
Maybe I should devote F.U.News to be the first Conservative Christian geek site. Oh wait, that was sorta my founding principle. Well, for the three of us (four if you count Jeff), we now have a home (actually, we've had it for a year and a half now).
TheBlueFox does not abide by your laws of nature. Actions made and taken, to and from other entities, are not limited by your derivitive fulminating invectum. All my rights are reserved and made into written copies!
ReplyDeleteThe average nerd is worse than half of all nerds and the other half are worse than him. From this one statement, one must conclude an ontological proof that, "since 2 halves of the nerd population are worse than another, and two halves make a whole, then the whole of nerddom must be worse then itself. But this statment is illogical. That is why nerds do not act logically".
A similar proof shows that all nerds are Russian refugees. "Since, nerds get their jollies off getting away with dirty deeds done dirt cheap, a la AC/DC, so too said deeds were done when they lived at home behind thier mother's back. Howerever, Russia was refered to as the motherland. Therefore, ex equali, those same deeds were done behind the Russia's back, but just as nerd's came from thier mothers so too do they come from Russia... but Russia was a communist nation! Therefore, nerds are refugee red party members from Russia."
From the proceeding it has been made clear my point. There is no chance to survive, make your time.
~The Blue Fox
What makes a geek? Well, lets see, at some point (most likely at a young age), the person (I'll refer to "person" as guy, man, etc... hereforth) failed to develop a working social ability (i.e. the ability to walk up to someone and have an informative conversation without being totally intimidated and afraid...).
ReplyDeleteOver time, that inability to fit into social structures led the man on the other path, and the two slowly diverged until there was such a great chasm between them... And the differences were obvious.
Now, said man/geek is mad at himself, mad at the world, mad at him mom and dad for doing a poor job of raising said geek, and he chooses to rebel, but in the passive/aggressive way since he doesn't know how to be aggressive, never learned how.
He doesn't believe that he has the ability to increase his self-esteem through personal endeavors, so he tags along with the idea those clever Liberals speak about, "give us your soul!"
Well, that of course sounds scary, but then there's the follow-up "...because we know you don't like to make your own choices, we'll make them for you (we can do a better job anyway, and you'll be happier because of it!) We know you're a victim. You had no choice, you deserve better. We'll beat the bully for you!"
How could any geek not be sucked in by that? I mean, the Liberals among us are all about making everyone a victim. I'm sure that soon there will be laws against discriminating against geeks.
Sure, in 5 years, a geek asking a girl out to the prom won't have to worry about hearing the reply "I have to wash my hair." Because there will be a liberal watchdog group there to file suit on his behalf.
Just from my observations of society in general, conservatives seem to have well-defined, well-articulated views which appear to the onlooker as being intolerant, but only because they get emotional and angry that we hold different views and never investigate why we hold them.
{{{Ok, so I digress into this theoretical conversation:
"I believe in X."
"Well you're fat and stupid and your mother is an ape!"
"Uh, I believe in X because of Y."
"You're Ugly! Your Mom is even uglier!"
"By the way, 2+2=4."
"No it doesn't! You're stupid!"}}}
Back to topic... Geeks have been running from perceived bullying since they were seven... they can't help it... how can you blame them? When anyone stands up for something, the geek feels threatened, and it makes him hate himself.
BFADM: I think you have to be careful before claiming that a geek's views come from the fact that he's an introvert. 1) This would imply that all introverts share those views, and 2) that is a stereotype that quite simply isn't true much of the time.
ReplyDeleteWhile there are many geeks who are shy and anti-social (myself included) that many times isn't the case. Also, the statement that a geek doesn't have a "working social ability" depends a lot on the social situation doesn't it? As long as we're talking stereotypes, consider the following scenario. If you take a popular person stereotype (say cheerleader) and throw her in a room with 20 geeks, who will be the anti-social one? The geeks will all be debating the pros and cons of the D&D 3.5 rule set while the cheerleader is sitting in a corner impersonating a wall flower.
I think, however, you are on the right track. Some geeks seem anti-social because they just don't feel like they fit in. Rather than thinking "everyone else is normal and I'm just weird", they're inclined to think "no one else understands me which means I must be smarter than them". The tendency is that the geek will look on everyone else as inferior. This will cause him to look on everyone else's beliefs as inferior to his own.
I think this pride has a lot to do with it. Geeks definitely aren't known for their humility (when was the last time you heard some one say in an online game "haha, j00 totally pwned me cuz ur so l337." It's almost always "admin! Ban that h4x0ring lamer!") And if you are very proud and different from everyone else, it's easy to think that you're better than everyone else. Once you've realized you're better than everyone else, it's easy to dismiss any of their beliefs as only suitable for lesser minds.
So this comes to the question, why am I different from the rest of the geeks? I think the most obvious explanation is good parenting. Firstly, I was brought up with a strong moral compass, and secondly, my parents are geeks themselves, to a fair extent. So rather than seeing myself as different and therefore better than my parents, I see myself as slightly, but not much, different and in the same vein as my parents. And if certain beliefs are true for my parents, then they must also be true for me.
Thank you! 8-)
ReplyDelete