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.")
I must disagree with Tim on this issue. Back in the dark ages, before the revolution, the Yankee was an insult used by British sympathisers to describe the hick American revolutionaries. The Americans adopted it as a matter of pride and threw it back in their detractors face.
I think Bill and I must've been in an exchange on this before, as I recall similar words from someone, perhaps Bill. Look, anyone is perfectly free to wear t-shirts espousing "Wimp Pride" and saying "We're gimps, we're wimps, we're dweebs, and we're PROUD!" I just cringe when I meet young programmers at Cypherpunks who mumble "I'm just a computer geek." Fine, I write them off as geeks.
Homosexuals are doing the same thing with the them "queer". When I went to Dan Farmer and Wietse Venema's class in Internet Security, Dan taught the class wearing a tank-top which said "QUEER" across the front.
I have no problem with dykes, fags, fairies, queens, and other assorted queers and perverts "reclaiming" these terms...I'll just ignore such folks. (And I do find it passing strange that several of these "queers" expressed outrage to me that I used the word "queer" in the name of a thread; I guess it's the same way niggers insist that only _they_ are allowed to use this "reclaimed" word.)
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"?) As I see it, the best way to handle such terms of insult is to refuse to respond to it, not some bullshitty scheme of "reclaiming" the term. (A journalist once called me to get a "nerd's" perspective on a crypto issue--I told her I'm not a nerd and hung up on her.) As for what people ought to call themselves, e.g., when journalists ask what they are. just what is wrong with "engineer," "programmer," "scientist," and "cryptographer"? --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."