Editorials - The Geek Hierarchy

[Xydexx]

Some folks say there's nothing lower than the furry geek. I beg to differ. Indeed, the lowest form of geek is the one who feels the need to put down other geeks in order to make themselves feel better.

It's an old story, but I'll tell it again: I once had the fortunate opportunity to have dinner with Trace Beaulieu (Crow T. Robot/Dr. Clayton Forrester of MST3K fame), who was Guest of Honor at a furry convention some years ago. And we asked him what he thought of furries and the idiotic inter-geek snarkery that frequently gets directed at them. Not surprisingly, he said he was disappointed that it goes on. I'm guessing maybe he got enough flak for being a sci-fi fan growing up in Minnesota that he knows what it feels like, so was sad to see sci-fi geeks doing it to others.

Beaulieu's comments were echoed more recently by Mark Evanier, who noted furry fandom "has endured a fair amount of mocking in the past, often from folks who oughta know better, given how their own interests have prompted ridicule from others."

Now, it's not that furries can't take a joke or anything. It's just that the folks who continually put down furries as a way of building themselves up don't seem to realize they aren't all that funny after we've heard it the first hundred times.

In summary, being a geek is cool. Being a geek putting down other geeks is really just lame. Or, as Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing says: "Yay for eccentric humans doing their own thing no matter what fun-crushers may say!"