It soothes my blackened soul.

Related to this morning's amusement, have you seen this? It's titled, You're not a nerd, geeks aren't sexy and you don't "fucking love" science. It sums up so much of what is wrong with... well, with so much. A quick rundown:

1. Pseudoscience is far more popular than actual science, because actual science is a lot of work that most observers can't even identify, and pseudoscience allows for easy self-congratulation.
2. Redefining words to retain their emotional caché while giving them meaning that removes the reason for that caché is both pathetic and ridiculously popular. It invariably results in removing the very impact it tried to make use of.
3. Claiming geekiness is far more more popular than actual geekiness, because actual geekiness is a lot of work that most observers can't even identify, and just claiming the title allows for easy self-congratulation.

One of my favorite parts of the article is this:

If you have to tell people you're a nerd, chances are you're not. Nerds don't have to advertise their status. We know. Being a nerd is a byproduct of losing yourself in what you do, often at the expense of friends, family and hygiene. Until or unless you've paid your dues, you haven't earned the right—or reason—to call yourself a nerd. Being a nerd isn't graceful or glorious. It's a life born out of obsessive dedication to a craft, discipline or collecting some stupid shit that only you care about.

Big reveal: It's ok to not be a geek. There's more to geekery than intelligence, and not being a geek doesn't mean that you're dumb or ignorant, or that you have no interesting interests. Mostly it means that your interests haven't interfered with your ability to relate to the general populace, or that they aren't a result of an inability to relate. Because that's pretty much what the word means. Always has, since it stopped referring to unfortunate sideshow denizens.

You want to know whether someone's a "real" nerd/geek? Remember that until the current blurring of the terms, the obsession with esoteric stuff was more or less secondary in the meaning to the social awkwardness. Being an expert has never been a pejorative. Some geeks are, yes, sexy. A fair few, really. It neither makes nor breaks the definition, since I know any number of terribly nerdy hotties. When I was (tangentially) involved with the Goth scene, I discovered that it was mostly nerds hiding behind very cool, carefully built facades. They didn't tell people they were nerds; they had no desire to. It's a byproduct, an unfortunate side effect, a description of maladroit tendencies. And that's the big clue, the difference Maddox is on about. If it was as awesome to be as everyone suddenly thinks it is, there'd be a lot more doing it for real.

Someone's going to read this and have the politically correct spasm of defending cosplayer women from being called fake geeks. Save it. If you have any association with the cosplay community, you'll know that (a) the supposed problem is miniscule and absurdly overblown, (b) the few jerks who cause the problem are regularly and thoroughly brow-beaten by the rest of the nerds, and (c) geeky cosplayers don't bother calling themselves geeks because, as above, they actually are. Genuine, with a history of being social outcasts and everything. Plus, I seem to recall a lot of noise over the past few decades about women being able to take care of themselves. Which these do, because... they're geeks.

[Addendum: My friend Victor mentioned something tangentially along this topic this very morning, after I'd written the above. Apparently the general idea is occurring independently to a lot of people, in various ways.]