I Don't Believe In Nerds

Last night I was Facebook-chatting with my friend Rebekah, who mentioned to me Simon Pegg is a fan of The Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band. She told me this because I'm the reason she's heard of the Bonzo Dogs. I talked a bit about the band and told her that I loved Hot Fuzz and thought Shaun Of The Dead was okay, but that's all I really know about Simon Pegg.
Her response was that he's a "self proclaimed geek."
My response was "Everyone is these days."
Then I got mad.
Now, it's not that I don't call myself a nerd or a dork or a geek all the freaking time. I called myself a "dumbass nerd" the other day when I caught myself singing I Think I Love You to the picture of Eugene Hutz on my computer's desktop. (I do that. It's fun and he's pretty.) I like some things that are considered "nerdy" and I'm sure every other "self proclaimed geek" does, too.
The problem is everyone is a "self proclaimed geek" and I don't really believe most of these people anymore.
First of all, I feel like society should have come far enough by now to have moved past labels like that. Every human being on the planet has some nerdy aspects to their personality and some non-nerdy aspects. Every human being has a lot of different interests and opinions, complex emotions and personal hypocracies. Everyone. Calling a person a geek or a nerd because they have a wide variety of interests (which seems to be the criteria these days) is lazy and pointless. That's not geeky, that's human.
In my opinion, the trendiness of "nerd culture" is offensive. On top of that, "nerd culture" is the patient zero who started the Liking Things Ironically Epidemic, which I absolutely cannot stand and wish would implode and disappear right now. (My profile picture on Facebook at the moment is the quote "If irony is your way of life, you are fucked.") It's cynical and hollow, and it makes me concerned for the future (moreso than I usually am).
I can no longer tell the difference between irony and sincerity, and I hate that. And it frightens me that the people of my generation will soon be the people in charge. I don't want to live in a world where people who have ironic mustaches and "liked it before it was cool" are running the place.
What happens when "nerd culture" goes out of fashion? My mom was complaining the other day that, once something is no longer cool, people act like they never liked it at all. The complaint was inspired by a disparaging remark about "Cosby sweaters" on the radio. (My mom likes Cosby sweaters. She thinks they look warm.) It's a good point.
Everyone acts like the 1980s were a horrible time for everything, but I genuinely liked a lot of what was going on back then; I like their horror movies, a lot of the music, the overabundance of rainbows in graphic design and a lot of the fashion (not all of it; I think big shoulder pads and skintight jumpsuits are ugly). And I think right now the 1980s are trendy again, but ironically. It's okay to like the '80s if you don't really mean it. That doesn't even make sense!
And it's an empty and depressing way to live your life.
So what does happen when liking things ironically and "nerd culture" go out of style? ...
I don't know.
Chris Hardwick will be out of a job, I suppose. I adore Chris Hardwick as a human being and as a comedian, but I do blame him quite a bit for the nerd trend; his website is called Nerdist for crying out loud. As he gains momentum, the more the nerd trend grows. Somewhere out there is a breaking point.
Nah, that's not true (the part about Chris being out of work). He'll keep doing what he does. When the break happens and the nerd trend dissipates, I don't think much will change for Chris Hardwick, because in spite of the fact that he bandies about the nerd label like it means something, he genuinely is one.
Those people out there who really are nerds, nothing will change when everybody tires of nerd culture.
Those people out there who are lucky enough to have completely moved past labeling people and things (sadly, I haven't gotten to that point; I'm trying my damnedest, but I can only think in the words and phrases available to me, and a lot of those are labels) won't even notice the difference.

Be seeing you.
-Sally