

What 800 Nerds on a Cruise Ship Taught Me About Life, the Universe (2014) - kqr2
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/nerd-cruise/

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minikites
> Where the Sea Monkeys see community, I see epistemic closure. All the shared
> references and common rhetorical tactics don’t feel supportive to me—they
> feel almost lazy, as if the triumph of the nerds means not having to meet
> the normals halfway.

This really is the main problem with nerd/geek/gamer/etc "culture", it's
actually very exclusionary to people and if you don't possess the right amount
of shared knowledge, you're ostracized. Nerd "culture" is also uncritical of
the objects of worship, watch what happens if someone criticizes a sacred cow
like Firefly or Game of Thrones.

Critical of individuals and uncritical of art is exactly the opposite of what
we should strive to be.

~~~
rtpg
Yeah, for all the whole "haha look at all these normal people caring about
their local sports teams"-type of memes in those circles, popular nerd culture
is basically exactly the same sort of behavior.

There's extremely vile behavior in these circles, a sort of one-up-manship
that ends up creating environments where things like Gamergate can prosper.

~~~
minikites
Exactly, it becomes a race to define the most narrow circle of who is "in" and
who is "out" and since nerd identity is defined by consumption, it becomes a
race to see who can consume the most obscure thing in an effort to keep people
out. This is why gamergate is so threatened, it's diluting the only identity
they have because they're so empty of meaningful personhood otherwise.

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thom
I guess there were better ways to spend the cruise:

[http://gavinverhey.tumblr.com/post/111287496771/the-time-
i-f...](http://gavinverhey.tumblr.com/post/111287496771/the-time-i-fell-down-
a-volcano)

~~~
tricolon
Thanks for that. I'm not even halfway through and I'm very glad I started.

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pixelglow
> If the JoCo Cruise is a church, I am apostate. That’s why I couldn’t stop
> worrying and love the Sea Monkeys. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be a nerd
> anymore. It was that I did. Or rather, that I already, inescapably, was.
> That boat and those people? They were my hometown.

Poignant article, some echoes in my own life. My nerd cred includes liking
comics, Star Trek, computer programming, obsessing about science fiction
minutiae, explaining real life using computer/SF/fantasy tropes etc. But
somehow never quite belonging with all the cosplaying, filksilking, us against
the muggles depth of nerddom. And never quite belonging with mainstream
society either -- why do people NOT want an explanation how MCU Bruce Banner
can control his Hulk persona, for example?

It's strange this feeling of not belonging. The author identifies this with a
former life ("my hometown"), presumably because he's partly outgrown it. While
I have outgrown some parts of my nerddom, I've always felt this "not
belonging" though.

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conkrete
This is by far the most poetic article I've read on Wired

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cm2012
Where do you find themed cruises like this? Last time I went on a cruise my
wife, sister and brother in law had a blast playing pandemic and D&D, but
there weren't too many other geeky people around that I could see (either
older people, people with family, or young party types)

~~~
radley
[https://jococruise.com/](https://jococruise.com/)

