> 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.
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.