At 6:40 PM 7/26/96, Bill Frantz wrote:
At 9:09 AM 7/26/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:
... I hate the term "nerd," as I hate the names "dweeb," "geek," "jerk," etc. Believe me, anyone who thinks being called a "nerd" is complimentary, or anyone who labels himself as a "geek," is probably one who would call himself a "nigger," or a "queer.")
[...]
People with pride in themselves and what they do can make their detractors eat their insults. We should make it clear that "nerd," "dweeb," "geek," "jerk," etc. are where the money is. We should turn them into terms of pride in what we are and what we do.
Maybe it's a generational thing (though Bill is as old as me, I think), but terms of insult are just that. The biggest users seem to be clueless journalists, like blonde bimbette Sue Hutchinson of the "S.J. Mercury News," who writes repeatedly of "nerdfests," and "geek conventions." (Hey, maybe womyn need to reclaim the terms "bimbo" and "airhead"?)
[..]
--Tim May
Isn't it a little strange that Tim was on the exact opposite side of this argument when I started a thread titled: "CypherPUNK considered harmful" ... in which I argued that we needed a better name for folks like us? Peter Trei trei@process.com [I'm off to the Security WG of the W3C in Redmond, so I won't see replies until Wednesday.]