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Nerd culture was thoroughly mainstreamed at this point, but pockets of the world still consider(ed) it a fringe interest with credentials. The "fake geek girl" trope was popular around this time too, with male nerds signaling annoyance that their very fringe interest was secretly well-liked by everyone. Even now this attitude seems to persist, oblivious to (or maybe compatible with?) the reality that no corner of nerd culture remains in the margins, no idea unbought or unmonetized. Anyway this strip has no punchline and neither does my post.
5 thoughts on “#508 – cut-and-dried”
sarusa
Oh yeah they're still out there, just met some last week, sadly. There's a lot of crossover with MRAs, white nationalist protestors emboldened by the last presidential election (you can be all three, woo!), etc. – they're weak, scared males who believe they have to hide their weakness by being a@#!holes and punching down and aren't capable of fixing it by developing actual strength of character. They fear their narrow bastions of power will open up, their blustering will be exposed (male face saving rituals are fragile), and they won't be so special any more. I've known too many. I may have been one in my early 20s.
Loop
I'm sorry; I meant to upvote your comment and downvoted it by mistake!
Anyway. There is indeed a lot of overlap in that Venn diagram of MRA/MGTOW/Incel + white nationalist + that certain kind of white male gamer. And not only are they scared in many ways, but they also tend to be men who've never learned how to identify and express their own emotions. It's internalized as self-hate or it comes spewing out as anger directed at the Other.
Haiio
Did you just claim Men's rights activists are white supremacists?
They just want to be treated fairly…
Ironically you act like a scared asshole punching down at men that have it tough. Because you fear your narrow bastion of power in feminism will open up, your blustering will be exposed too.
Would be really bad if women weren't so special any more right.
I know a certain community of people will hate me for this comment, and claim I am the hateful one, but please realize I just copied your own words.
granulac
I let these posts through, but I\’m not interested in letting the comments veer into this shit. To your point I don\’t exactly think young male gamers, MRAs, incels etc. have a lot of power either, and I see their frustration. My point above is that a culture war is being fought between consumers, on a battleground that is monopolized by a handful of companies that invade our privacy, sap our creative energy, generally lower our quality of life. Everyone\’s energy is being misdirected into this othering nonsense when they could be finding solidarity.
Mauricio Lemos
I don't think you understand what the term "punching down" means.