Proudly a nerd

Is "nerd" such a negative thing anymore? Seems like its been watered down to mean "I play at least one video game".
I use the term "classic nerd" for what was once "nerd" because I havent found another word that covers it.
- Forty years later, people figured out that the nerds were making more money than God. Then nerd wasn't such a bad thing.
- This is so confusing. Are you saying "classic nerd" is negative then? Your wording is kind of ambiguous. I don't think "nerd" has been watered down, just isn't very negative in the mainstream. I'd say it just means you're very enthusiastic about a certain topic. I don't think folks would call someone who just plays one video game a nerd, unless it's only one video game and they are super into it, like a "WoW nerd" maybe.
  I don't think there's any need to gatekeep "nerd" though and require any additional qualifiers on it like "classic". Just seems like you're trying to say "actual" without sounding elitist about it.
  
  I don't think they mean it to be negative. I assumed they mean its used more loosely now and has lost some of the meaning it used to have as a result. They can't find a more fitting word for what they want to say, so they just specify they mean the stricter definition of the word nerd.
- Even today I think nerd still involves some kind of obsession though.
  Anyone could be into LOTR, especially after the movies came out. But it's kinda nerdy to have heated discussions whether or not leaving out Tom Bombadil was the right call (it wasn't!).
  
  ...it was tho.
  
  I've seen someone on a dating app describe herself as a "gym nerd". It hurt my soul a bit
- Idk but I now react like they said the N word and I gaslight them into feeling bad for using a slur.
  Hilarious
- Nerd is a compliment as far as I'm concerned.
  
  It wasnt when and where I grew up. The stereotype was still the "Revenge of the nerds" or "Steve Urkel". But I kinda took the label as a shield when people used it on me and I learned what it meant. Why should I be ashamed of enjoying digging into computers and programming? Why would enjoying books or non-mainstream comics be such a negative thing? Why would playing more advanced video games be sad? Or finding math fun? And why was I the only one who would admit to enjoying it at school? I know a few people had some shared interest, but they never spoke of it at school. Also why yell out loudly that whatever I was lost in was utterly boring to them? And when reaching the next level of education and meeting people LIKE ME, the nerd label hardened. They were nerds, I was nerd. I learned about roleplaying games, MTG, even more advanced video games, that stuff that seemed was the domain of most nerds.
  The nerd label meant someone who had multiple interests into stuff that average people called "boring". Finding people who called themselves nerds meant that they very likely shared some interests with me, or could teach me something new I would find interesting. So I am still a bit sore that people who bullied me for being a nerd later proudly declare themselves nerds for ONLY playing such a simple game as World of Warcraft when that was popular. It is about using a word for what seemed like it had its own meaning back then, who now have become a synonym for "gamer".
  /u/pjhenry1216@kbin.social I dont consider that gate-keeping. I would welcome all and any to enjoy the things nerds enjoy. I just want to have a name for the subculture I joined and found belonging in. Words like goth have meaning still, and it isnt gatekeeping to assume it means people who enjoys dressing in all-black.
- Geek is the non-pejorative form of nerd, I believe.
  
  To me, geek means someone that is obsessed over something non-harmful.
  Movies, books, boardgames, video games, cosplay, anime, math, computers, applications, ...
  A nerd is a geek who made the obsession their job. Like a professional geek.

Problem is for a long time the heaviest trekkies, the really visible ones, were usually not about the idealism at all.
For every quiet idealist who dreams of a better future there's a loud closet fascist who only sees the uniforms, a rigid militarized society with clear chains of authority, a Vulcan philosophy where cold logic overrides empathy, and where the advanced humans swashbuckle about the universe showing the natives their place.
It's getting better now but back in the day Trek fandom was rough and it's taking a lot to shake the image.
- Dude, what? I've never heard, and I'm guessing most people haven't heard, of the Trek fandom being seen as fascist or zealous. Especially not the 'heaviest Trekkies'. Are there some who are like that? Absolutely. I've met a fair few through Elite Dangerous, as sad as that is, but it's certainly not the majority. Definitely not enough to have colored the entire movement that way. ESPECIALLY when the major Trek cast constantly push the idealism.
  
  The rest of us are hearing this for the first time.
  Not me, I grew up with one of those people and he was awful. And because he was the only Trekkie in the whole town, pretty much everyone I grew up with has a terrible opinion of star trek and its fans. I bet a lot of the negative perception of the show comes from people like that. People like that are not that common, but neither are outspoken star trek fans in general, so most people probably have a pretty equal chance of meeting either type of fan.
  
  I never said it was the majority, I said the heaviest most vocal ones.
  These people made Star Trek the original toxic fandom, it's not a new observation.
- I've always been pathologically unwilling to be part of a community. I miss out on a lot, I'm sure. It's not a healthy way to be, and I'm not saying it's a good thing.
  It's just that I'm into things like anime and video games and all that nerd shit. Every community has Those People that I don't want to be associated with. They aren't even the majority, but when a person who doesn't know much about anime hears "anime lover" they think of a dude doing a Naruto run in public. When they hear "Star Trek" they think of the comic book guy from Simpsons. Etc.
  
  I know exactly what you mean. I've always wanted to know why our hobbies have the worst people in it.
  
  It's rare to find a community that doesn't corrupt the original itent it was built around. Look at organized religion. Doesn't speak well to humanity in general I'm afraid.
- but how can one enjoy Star Trek without those? I mean, that's the meat and potatoes of it
  
  Same way they watch The Boys thinking Homelander is the hero

I mean, they obviously don't know all of that. Haters think Star Trek is just people in bad costumes jerking each other off.
- Hey it can be about many things
- There's definitely at least a couple of episodes about that.
  
  Thank you, Lieutenant Broccoli
- Sounds hot, where is that?
  
  The holodecks.
  
  Enterprise was basically softcore porn.

Two years ago during the big /r/NNN protest I met major resistence from other reddit mods in regards to taking our subreddits private. I knew someone had to stick their neck out first if we were going to get the Reddit admins to care about our protest. Many mods were worried about upsetting their users by making waves.
I slept on the decision and woke up early thinking to myself "Wait a minute, these are Trekkies I'm dealing with, the most rambunctious group of policically nerdy fans I can think of. Trekkies stand up to bullies and they do it together. Of course they'll stand by us if we do this."
I reached out to the Daystrom mods asking if they'd join us in going private and they were immediatley in. Same for Risa and the Discovery mods and many other mods of many small Trek subs.
While the protest didn't achieve the goals I wanted and I ultimatley quit the site altogether, we definitley made some big waves, and it was all because Trekkies weren't afraid to do what's right, it really stuck with me the power fans of a "silly 60 year old TV show" can have.
- Love Star Trek and a lot of Sci-Fi for this reason. Just finished binge watching Strange New Worlds where standing up for what is right is a core tenant of the crew. In contrast, one of the recent Ashoka episodes really hit me with the quote "sometimes even the right reasons have the wrong consequences". It really sums up my experience in the world we live in and where we could be.

WWSTD?
What Would Star Trek Do?
- Picard on one shoulder, Garak on the other shoulder
  Riker on the bed with his pants off

I needed to see this today.

For someone that has never watched any star trek what should I start off watching?
- I'd suggest going through a list of the best TNG episodes
  
  I feel like I should like it, but its episodic nature completely ruins it for me.
- TNG, start with the second season. If that's a too preachy and perfect for you try DS9.

I got myself a career where nerd is a prerequisite, and a nerdophilic gf. Nerd and proud!

You know, I don't think I've ever had anyone judge me for my love of Star Trek. Sci-fi and nerddom is a lot more mainstream than it used to be.
However... If someone were to flip to BBC America and watch one episode of TNG, and that episode was The Royale, I wouldn't even mind if they judged me for all eternity.

trek hasn't been about any of that shit for at least a couple decades. It's just star wars with a coat of paint at this point
- You should watch Strange News Worlds then.

Fine I’ll watch it already!
- One of us!
  Don't worry we have bloodwine and cookies.

Millions inspired to be better? A phenomena?
- A lot of nerds became doctors and aerospace scientists and stuff because of Star Trek
  
  I'm sure there probably even a few that were influenced negatively and became Ferenghi-like.
- Negative and positive influence is very real from entertainment, no matter how some people deny it.
  Trek has by and large been a positive influence on a lot of people.

The same can be said for Naruto fans, or Bleach fans, or any fandom with a long-lasting history.
People roll their eyes because they watch an episode or two and think "this is basic level convoluted drama", and they're completely right. But they haven't seen the history, the implied context to which these dramas came to be, and what these characters have overcome to get to where they are now.
- Shonen series are for children, it's literally in the name.
- Ok but Naruto is pretty trashy compared to Star Trek.
  Not a bad thing, it's just a kids/teenagers show mostly.
  
  Seriously, they think I turned off Naruto because of the basic drama? No, I turned it off because hearing the orange jumpsuit ninja(????) Talk for 5 seconds made my ears crave chopsticks.
  
  Still nerdy if one also enjoy other anime stuff more than the average person. I consider anime nerds as nerds.
- Not really... Especially for most of the points that it made.
  Exactly what social issues did bleach or Naruto cover like real social issues. Not (NARUTO SPOILERS)
  it's hard being a kid with a demonfox soul inside you, or "my brother killed my family but didn't really. He was actually trying to make me super strong so that I could avenge my family and the only way he thought that would happen was if he wanted a revenge on me"...