Being ashamed of being a nerd
I just read a thread on a message board about being afraid to tell people you play D&D, or whatnot. This is unacceptable to me. We're not talking about whacking off to My Little Pony here or other weird, abberant behavior, but a fully legitimate way to stimulate your brain and imagination and socialize in a non-destructive way. Under no circumstances do I feel the need to hide that I game or read comic books or watch anime or any of my other "nerdy" hobbies. Nor am I ashamed of my shelf of children's books or my toys that are left over from my childhood.
When you have nothing to be ashamed of, but you're afraid to admit it, that speaks of a failure on the part of the other party. They feel threatened by your non-standard (by their definition, probably shaped by society's definition) activities and mock them to establish that they are normal in the eyes of their peers, who they feel the need to impress this way. When someone mocks you, it's normal to fear that they may be right and question your own integrity. I feel that this is the only thing that allows these people to get away with this, rather than being told to shut up and everyone moving on. Further, people like this tend to congegrate together, gaining false authority via mutual agreement amongst themselves.
Well, this is just the problem with the world, isn't it? The stupid people win because the smart people don't want to bother with them, or they let the morons of the world get to them. I think everyone's insecure on some level, but the morons can create a false sense of security with their bravado. These people are in charge of everything -- the government, the big companies, etc... -- because nobody challenges them and tells them to shut up.
Whenever someone does something stupid, wins a lawsuit, and a ridiculous label is added to a product so the company can't be sued again, that's the idiots winning. Whenever something harmless is censored for fear of offending some overly sensitive soccer mom, that's the idiots winning. Whenever a person with dark skin is made to work in the kitchen or cleaning tables instead of taking orders because they don't want the bigots who pay money to eat at their restaurant to be offended, that's the idiots winning.
Standing up for your enjoyment of nerdy stuff is a small victory, but telling these kinds of people to shut up and stop embarrassing themselves is a step in the right direction. We need to make stop letting these people think that they have a valid viewpoint by judging us for playing RPGs or what-have-you and let them know that they're mouthbreathers who are a discredit to the human race.
In the aforementioned thread, people were talking about lying to their wives! Can you imagine a relationship -- a marriage, even -- based on such a lack of trust? It's insane. Anyone I'm afraid to admit things to isn't worth the time it takes to lie to them. They can go back to their judgemental little lives. I won't miss them. Every moment I spend having to be around them is a moment I could have spent doing something worthwhile.
I haven't even actually thought about any of this in years. It hasn't even occurred to me that playing RPGs could be something worth hiding. If someone dared to ridicule this hobby in my presence during the last decade or more, I would just kind of roll my eyes, realize I was dealing with an idiot, and do my best to get away from them as soon as possible. I know the public image of a nerd is that of a softspoken (albeit often grumpy) person, but this is just ridiculous to me.
When you have nothing to be ashamed of, but you're afraid to admit it, that speaks of a failure on the part of the other party. They feel threatened by your non-standard (by their definition, probably shaped by society's definition) activities and mock them to establish that they are normal in the eyes of their peers, who they feel the need to impress this way. When someone mocks you, it's normal to fear that they may be right and question your own integrity. I feel that this is the only thing that allows these people to get away with this, rather than being told to shut up and everyone moving on. Further, people like this tend to congegrate together, gaining false authority via mutual agreement amongst themselves.
Well, this is just the problem with the world, isn't it? The stupid people win because the smart people don't want to bother with them, or they let the morons of the world get to them. I think everyone's insecure on some level, but the morons can create a false sense of security with their bravado. These people are in charge of everything -- the government, the big companies, etc... -- because nobody challenges them and tells them to shut up.
Whenever someone does something stupid, wins a lawsuit, and a ridiculous label is added to a product so the company can't be sued again, that's the idiots winning. Whenever something harmless is censored for fear of offending some overly sensitive soccer mom, that's the idiots winning. Whenever a person with dark skin is made to work in the kitchen or cleaning tables instead of taking orders because they don't want the bigots who pay money to eat at their restaurant to be offended, that's the idiots winning.
Standing up for your enjoyment of nerdy stuff is a small victory, but telling these kinds of people to shut up and stop embarrassing themselves is a step in the right direction. We need to make stop letting these people think that they have a valid viewpoint by judging us for playing RPGs or what-have-you and let them know that they're mouthbreathers who are a discredit to the human race.
In the aforementioned thread, people were talking about lying to their wives! Can you imagine a relationship -- a marriage, even -- based on such a lack of trust? It's insane. Anyone I'm afraid to admit things to isn't worth the time it takes to lie to them. They can go back to their judgemental little lives. I won't miss them. Every moment I spend having to be around them is a moment I could have spent doing something worthwhile.
I haven't even actually thought about any of this in years. It hasn't even occurred to me that playing RPGs could be something worth hiding. If someone dared to ridicule this hobby in my presence during the last decade or more, I would just kind of roll my eyes, realize I was dealing with an idiot, and do my best to get away from them as soon as possible. I know the public image of a nerd is that of a softspoken (albeit often grumpy) person, but this is just ridiculous to me.