Back in my day, you couldn’t risk showing up to school with some glasses and a pack of Magic The Gathering trading cards. Hell you best not even come to school with Yu-Gi-Oh cards snuck into your clothes if it’s a gym class day. The jocks would be all too quick to expose your dumbass for being a stupid nerd and forever sentence you to be an outcast. Well maybe not that extreme but I did attend public school so you can bet the nerds were ostracized and made fun of on the regular. However, as the years went by I noticed that nerd shit (gaming, anime, etc.) had slowly gone so mainstream, that nowadays I honestly am beginning to wonder if the term is almost completely dead.

I can’t remember the last time I heard someone seriously try to insult another person by using the term “nerd”. These days there are plenty of terms that attack a male for being “weak” such as beta and simp, but those terms moreso attack the dude’s mindset rather than the interests. By nature, the term nerd implies that someone who is interested in either scholarly topics, or brainy interests like gaming, is lame for doing so and therefore inferior to a cool, popular person. Yet these days almost EVERYONE plays at least some form of game, or watches at least ONE anime. Hell, I can go into a damn Walmart in the middle of the country and pick up some manga. And not Naruto either, I’m talking about Jujutsu Kaisen and Tokyo Revengers. I know because I tried baby, and I found them without looking very hard. As generations change and new words rise to stardom (I’m still getting a grasp on W rizz and the like), I think insulting has evolved to attacking a dude’s character for always putting women on a pedestal (simp) or not having enough conviction to workout out or whatever (beta). These terms are still pretty shit and are often used in ways that make no sense, but I think it’s nice that we’re evolving to judge people by how they act rather than what they are interested in. Problem is, new generations are just youngins who are shit judges of character. But hey, each generation will deal with their own struggles as they assess and change the current state of the world, and maybe in a few years we can finally get rid of the “beta cuck” family of terms too.

Ah, the dying term of nerd paired with a dying medium: physical books.

One thing is for sure, I know I won’t be using nerd as an insult anytime soon. I feel like I’m trying to transport back to the 1990’s merely thinking about it. What do you guys think about the state of what was once a popular insult? Is the term practically dead now as nerdy outlets have gone so mainstream? Were you ever insulted for your nerdy interests, and if so when? Put on your glasses, hide in the locker from the jocks, and turn in your homework a day ahead of time in the comments below!