> I think the gay community, despite their ongoing struggle, has at least managed to make it almost impossible to receive a similar kind of media report that consists of nothing but stereotypes.
Are you kidding?
Yeah, I get where you're coming from on the offensive tone in some articles, but I think it's absolutely ridiculous to compare the portrayal of nerds in the media to the struggle for gay rights and equality.
And on that offensive tone - I don't think it's really present, here. I felt flattered as this article hammered home the importance of being up to date on tech, and employing the kinds of people that'll get great work done.
I've noticed a tendency, not just amongst others but also something I catch myself doing, for people like you and me to be a little over-sensitive. I spent a big period of my life being ridiculed over what I liked, and what I did, and what I looked like. I got used to confusing insults being thrown at me veiled under sarcasm, and felt like the whole world was laughing at me and I didn't even hear the joke.
So I got mean. I stopped trusting people, and I always assumed the worst. If someone (particularly someone matching the profile of former tormentors - bigger than me, cooler than me, better hair than me, plays sports better than me) said something that was maybe sincere, but possibly a sarcastic insult, I took it as the latter. These people were out to get me and if I gave them the benefit of the doubt, they would set me up for a fall!
Of course, the real world isn't high school, and more than that, the world has changed and attitudes have moved on. But any geek who is still carrying around a defensive attitude has turned the tables: now they are the ones judging others, being exclusionist (see: people crying about "fake" nerd girls), judging people on their appearances (many of us are anti-suit) or what they do (and many of us are anti-sports).
> self-content righteousness in making fun of those people who created everything modern society cannot be without: facebook, twitter, the internet, apps, you name it
On the one hand this sounds arrogant; I think as a developer I'd be remiss in not including many other people in the credits (product managers, finance, legal, designers, ux experts - many of these people are not nerds). On the other, whenever I speak to people about what I do ("What's a software engineer?" "I uh.. make websites") the reception is generally positive and enthusiastic - most people acknowledge that they enjoy the fruits of technological development, appreciate the people that bring it to them, and often aspire to learn more of the inner workings.
Of course, there are some bad articles - but they aren't representative of people's opinions in the wider world, in my experience, and the number I read that are flattering versus insulting is improving all the time.
You certainly have a point that the kind of discrimination that nerds receive is in no way comparative to what homosexuals have to put up with. Gay people get killed just for their sexual orientation alone, and that is certainly not comparable to the bullying nerds receive.
But it was not my intention to claim that these two are the same, and if you got that from the "thought experiment" I described you misunderstood me. Still, I hope I haven't hurt anyone's feelings, yours or some other reader's, with what I wrote. My point was not so much to say "both groups are exactly equal in the discrimination they experience", but rather to raise awareness that there is, in fact, discrimination happening against nerds. People today are more sensitive to gay rights, and imagining that an article was about gays rather than nerds might help illustrate potential problems in that article.
That said, let me point out one more time that I do not think that this particular article is especially bad. I've written it before that for the most part it is a fair depecition, yet it cannot resist the temptation to throw in some of the same old cliches that are well-suited to manifest a certain discriminatory picture of nerds.
If you are right and the number of flattering articles is improving all the time, that would be a very welcome development. I certainly hope for it. But that doesn't mean we should accept anything less than that. I am not sure I agree with your assessment of people's opinions in the wider world, but even if it was a minority that discriminated it would not be acceptable.
Yeah, this article isn't discriminatory, it's just lazy.
"We saw a bunch of stories about the Romney ORCA meltdown, we need something about the success on the Obama side. What's the human angle? Nerds! Great, print it!"
Are you kidding?
Yeah, I get where you're coming from on the offensive tone in some articles, but I think it's absolutely ridiculous to compare the portrayal of nerds in the media to the struggle for gay rights and equality.
And on that offensive tone - I don't think it's really present, here. I felt flattered as this article hammered home the importance of being up to date on tech, and employing the kinds of people that'll get great work done.
I've noticed a tendency, not just amongst others but also something I catch myself doing, for people like you and me to be a little over-sensitive. I spent a big period of my life being ridiculed over what I liked, and what I did, and what I looked like. I got used to confusing insults being thrown at me veiled under sarcasm, and felt like the whole world was laughing at me and I didn't even hear the joke.
So I got mean. I stopped trusting people, and I always assumed the worst. If someone (particularly someone matching the profile of former tormentors - bigger than me, cooler than me, better hair than me, plays sports better than me) said something that was maybe sincere, but possibly a sarcastic insult, I took it as the latter. These people were out to get me and if I gave them the benefit of the doubt, they would set me up for a fall!
Of course, the real world isn't high school, and more than that, the world has changed and attitudes have moved on. But any geek who is still carrying around a defensive attitude has turned the tables: now they are the ones judging others, being exclusionist (see: people crying about "fake" nerd girls), judging people on their appearances (many of us are anti-suit) or what they do (and many of us are anti-sports).
> self-content righteousness in making fun of those people who created everything modern society cannot be without: facebook, twitter, the internet, apps, you name it
On the one hand this sounds arrogant; I think as a developer I'd be remiss in not including many other people in the credits (product managers, finance, legal, designers, ux experts - many of these people are not nerds). On the other, whenever I speak to people about what I do ("What's a software engineer?" "I uh.. make websites") the reception is generally positive and enthusiastic - most people acknowledge that they enjoy the fruits of technological development, appreciate the people that bring it to them, and often aspire to learn more of the inner workings.
Of course, there are some bad articles - but they aren't representative of people's opinions in the wider world, in my experience, and the number I read that are flattering versus insulting is improving all the time.