I understand that when you are into something that is not mainstream and it becomes mainstream it can be very annoying. I have felt that same frustration myself many times. Unfortunately, I feel the nerd community is starting to become almost volatile because of this frustration. As I have mentioned on Loserville in the past, I find it very disheartening when fans (whether it is of comic books, video games, anime, whatever) exclude other people from learning about or getting involved in the things they they like and are knowledgable about. I also know the labels “nerd” and “loser” used to be a hurtful thing and recently we have come to embrace these terms to “reclaim” them….and you know what, folks? It worked. We reclaimed the term “nerd” so hard that it is actually cool and acceptable to be a nerd now.

You’d think that all of the people who were bullied for liking video games instead of football or who got more excited for comic book Wednesday than prom would be HAPPY at this turn of events. We won! “Na na na boo boo”, right? Wrong. It is my perception that we in the nerd community have become so bitter from how we were treated that we are mad that our reclaiming of these terms worked. We are irritated that attractive girls come to comic con dressed up as Batgirl when we assume they’ve never read a comic book  We are annoyed that people who once loved football and prom now identify as “nerds” just because they went to see the Avengers movie.

Newsflash, everyone—did you ever consider that people can like football AND comic books? Did you ever, instead of lashing out at noobs, feel excited that they want to be a part of our culture and learn about the things that we made cool?! I am proud to own up the things that I enjoy, which includes comic books and cosplay and vintage video games, and I am also happy to admit to the things that I do not know. I will not feel obligated to prove my nerd knowledge to ANYONE just because they think I must just be jumping on the bandwagon based on how I look or what my other interests may be. I really feel that we should embrace this shift in the tides and show everyone just how cool, nice, and supportive our community can be.

Things are becoming SO bitter and elitist that we now hate the things we once loved. We are not excited for new comic book based movies, we just complain that they are popular now. Maybe I missed something but isn’t the point of all of this to have fun and be entertained? In the words of Ledger’s Joker, “why so serious?” Everyone is entitled to their opinions so you can hate on any movie you want, but if you hate it just because its popular or just because it has Ben Affleck in it…maybe you’re missing the point of all of this.

If you’re upset that you were once teased or bullied because of your interests, the answer is not to tease and bully others now or to hate movies that you probably would have loved if they were released 10 years ago “before it was cool”. When did nerds turn into pretentious hipsters, anyway? When a “nerd” or “loser” acts elitest, judgmental, or overly-critical towards others who show interest in nerd culture (even if they’re only interested the Avengers movie), I think it’s a real shame. From this moment forward I am campaigning against this kind of behavior, which I will heretoforth refer to as “nerd-on-nerd bullying”, regardless of what the opinions of my Loserville co-hosts may be. Those who participate in nerd-on-nerd bullying (even bullying of noob nerds or “fake geek girls”) should be sentenced to an eternity of Jar Jar Binks, The Big Bang Theory, and George Clooney as Batman– because nerd elitists hate those things– but I don’t 😉

In the words of Arnie, “everybody—chill!”. Let’s just have fun, be proud of what we are passionate about, and not be jerks to other human beings, K?