Open Source software. Piracy. Book preservation. Data preservation. History preservation. Art preservation. Indie creative movements. DIY hobbies. Neurodivergent online communities. Queer online communities. Book nerds writing and reading theory. Hobby communities in general. All that good stuff is NERDY.
I want to reclaim nerds for the left. Nerd’s are fine. I’m a massive nerd and I’m poorer and spend less on my “toys” than anyone I know. Some of the nicest people I know are complete dorks. Some of the biggest leftists I know will talk your ear off about their nerdy ass hobbies if you let them. Nerd spaces tend to attract neurodivergent people too, so I can’t help but wonder if hatred for “socially awkward people who hyperfixate on their uncool hobbies” is just subconscious ableism talking. Play is good. Play is normal. Humans are supposed to have toys.
The idea that a nerd spending $30 on model paints is somehow more consumerist than a non-nerd who spends the same on whatever non-nerd thing that is probably just as commodified anyway is very, “Oh you live under capitalism but have an iphone” to me. Of course a huge part of nerd culture has been ruined by consumerism, but so has everything. Everything is consumerist, we live under capitalism.
It really does come across as an attempt to wedge highschool clique culture back into leftism. A fixation on aesthetic coolness which just so happens to peer pressure people away from the same “weak beta soy male” traits right-wingers hate.
It’s wild how easy it is to misdirect even leftists by pointing to an easy target.
I think it’s the easy gotcha. “A planned economy wouldn’t generate your beloved Geforce 4090/Warhammer figures/boxes of comics.”
Maybe with sensible labour planning there would be enough free time and broad access to disposable income for art and culture, evwn popular forms.
It’s funny, because I can’t think of a single nerdy hobby that is improved by capitalism, every time it’s a group of passionate people who made something for fun, then it got picked up by corporate suits who turn it into a skinner box encouraging maximum spending and it completely loses all the original appeal.
The gambling and collecting aspects of TCGs are actually sort of joyful though. And they sort of fall off when buying most of the cards you could ever want becomes financially irresponsible rather than completely out of reach.
Also people make nerd shit for free.
All the time.
Literally most of the internet when you remove corporate advertising and ai is just nerds sharing shit they made
They have entire legal teams dedicated to stopping it because corporations got so tired of nerds sharing free shit
In this great capitalist economy we have GeForce 4090s, but nobody can afford them because of the slop machines.