Dumb and Dumber

Self Fulfilling Narrowmindedness

Narrowminded Hostility

In attention to growing anti-intellectualism, there's also a growing elitism in nerd culture. This is evident in some scenes where elitism and hostility towards the outsiders are like unspoken rules. Like the kid who never got over getting bullied, the rock nerd gets defensive if somebody says that rock music sucks but does a 180 degree in his/her attitude towards non-rock music. The stupid rock nerd evaluates other genres by rock music standards never mind that music history was always outside of rockism's rules. There were classical musicians who composed their own music but they never sang them and that there are probably many more songs out whose actual authors are lost to time, making them free game to those who want to cover them.

It gets more laughable when you have nerds decrying the masses for enjoying corporate crap, never mind that they themselves are the biggest corporate suckups to date if it weren't for their cultish devotion to franchises and brands like Games Workshop, Kyoto Animation and Lucasfilm. They get flustered if the masses show real interest in the things they hold near and dear even though it can be justified in some cases. But the most jarring cases have to do with nerds who project an elitist image but if you tear it down you'd get insecurity in one's tastes and ironically a lack of intelligence. Maybe a lack of intelligence isn't the right way to describe it but many music nerds are undoubtedly elitist and narrowminded.

In order to be truly open-minded, one must listen to a much wider variety of music (or enjoy a wider variety of other things in general). Open-minded nerds exist but they're overshadowed by their narrow-minded counterparts who are either stuck in their comfort zones or refuse to get out of there. In nerd culture, it's easier to be defined by one's narrowmindedness and unwillingness to try out something else unless if it's the latest fad than it is to be open-minded and willing to challenge not just everybody but also oneself. Because of narrowmindedness, fandom has become a bigger deal and is now the dominant mode of thought. It doesn't have to be a media franchise, but also fandoms involving wolves and even ships for instance.

Due to narrowmindedness, nothing new will genuinely happen in nerddom. The music nerd looks down on new music as if they're bad and nothing like his/her childhood as well as looking down on music that isn't his/her type. The anime nerd refuses to acknowledge the importance or existence of animation that is neither Western nor Japanese. The wolf nerd will have interests in other animals but shows a double standard because s/he shows little regard for everything else. Because of narrowmindedness, many nerds will fight to the death to see what's better and who's hotter. No doubt that everybody else has been through it but are outgrowing and there are many other nerds who are like this. But there are nerds who remain both opinionated and narrowminded, so set in their ways that it's virtually impossible to educate and please them.

When that narrowmindedness starts seeping through nerd media and practises, disturbing patterns will emerge. Considering what happened to anime as of late, there are still anime that don't pander a lot to otaku audiences. Not just Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and possibly Fairy Tail but also Sazae-San, Crayon Shin Chan and Doraemon. But for every Bleach and One Piece, there's going to be anime that's done by anime fans for anime fans. You can find a following traits: the identifiably nerdy protagonist, never-ending references to other anime, worn-out cliches and needless anthropomorphism and fan favourite stereotypes. This similarly happens in non anime media where there's nary actual human beings in the stories. Due to self-selection and narrowmindedness, the otherwise radically different stories and characters get replaced by fan favourite themes and stereotypes.

When that happens, the nerdy audience has difficulty accepting anything truly out of the ordinary. The anime audience has rejected anime like Aku no Hana and most international anime fans haven't heard of Sazae-san and Golden Eggs. Music nerds reject a certain band for going too mainstream, even if that opens up to a new generation of music nerds. Superhero audiences have difficulty accepting original people of colour and are sometimes comfortable with POC versions of existing characters. Other than fads, the only times when truly different stuff are embraced not only by nerds but also with everybody else are rare, fleeing moments. Narrowmindedness is the reason and case why nerd culture has so much difficulty eradicating sexism, racism and other woes. Actually that narrowmindedness exists outside of nerd culture which can harm not only industries like comic books but also the ability to willingly accept new ideas and processes. Without an open mind, nerd culture is open to stagnation in the form of nostalgia and self-selection.