I think I’ve figured out why this piece annoys me so much.

“I’m not a nerd.”

Well then, thank you so much for telling me that my community is dead. :-P

“That was the year the final issue of Watchmen came out, in October. After that, it seemed like everything that was part of my otaku world was out in the open and up for grabs, if only out of context. I wasn’t seeing the hard line between “nerds” and “normals” anymore. It was the last year that a T-shirt or music preference or pastime (Dungeons & Dragons had long since lost its dangerous, Satanic, suicide-inducing street cred) could set you apart from the surface dwellers. Pretty soon, being the only person who was into something didn’t make you outcast; it made you ahead of the curve and someone people were quicker to befriend than shun. Ironically, surface dwellers began repurposing the symbols and phrases and tokens of the erstwhile outcast underground.”

“Waaaah, it’s not fun anymore if OTHER people like it!  Now I can’t maintain my sense of superiority over people that like Madonna!”

Wow, get over yourself.

FYI, there is still plenty of Otaku-booty out there (in fact, that’s the name of a geek dating site).  There are just MORE of us since the internet came to call upon world culture. Are you just having trouble keeping up with our agile, young minds (and booties) Mr. “Nerd was better in the 80s!” 40something?  Why do you write for Wired, again?

And so what if “normies” like Star Wars, BSG, Gibson, or whatevs?  It’s media produced in the public sphere, it is there for public consumption.  And the more the public consumes, the more gets produced (and hopefully more of it is entertaining to me).  Especially if the public doesn’t think it is dangerous (thank you dissolution of MADD).

As I learn more about people who don’t have professionally drawn pictures of their Star Wars rpg character hanging in their office (:-D!!), I see that there really isn’t a line between “us” and “THEM” beyond the one imprinted in our minds during high school.  Nerdiness and Fandom is a hobby (and one that you apparently don’t play with anymore).  Anyone who judges you to be a bad/inferior person because of your hobby is a shallow person. As well as anyone who assumes they will be judged in this way.  And to judge oneself more righteous for following the fandom is about the same level of shallow.

“OMG! I can’t talk about Doctor Who at a bar!  THEM might be listening and then THEM will think I’m a dork!”  

On the other side “Eeew, you watch football? No, you can’t buy me a drink.”

Srsly?  This is a thing?  Blegh.  What is wrong with people?

(To be honest, as a gamer geek “fantasy football” makes more sense to me than actual football.  That doesn’t make me better/worse or more l33t than anybody else.)

I wonder if Wired will keep you on even if you belittle EVERYONE WHO READS YOUR MAGAZINE.

Don’t let the blast shield doors hit you on the ass on the way out.  Actually, no, let them.