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Nietzsche's problem with Plato is that he turned philosophy away from the more noble spirited "pro-socratic" philosophers, be it Heraclitus, who wept for the tragedy of human condition and saw all existence as strife, Democritus who bore all things cheerfully while traveling the world in search of wisdom, or greatest of all Thucydides, who had the rare courage to speak plainly about how the world really is, rather than how it ought to be.

Plato, on the other hand, turned philosophy into what can only be describe as "nerd shit". Plato wanted philosophy to solve puzzles and create abstract, perfect concepts. For Plato the true world was the world of the nerd, the world of concepts, of forms, of "pure" rationality divorced from the world.

However, Plato could rightly think of Nietzsche as a nerd, because he was a little obsessive weak weirdo who never left his basement, where as Plato was a highly sociable champion wrestler. Herein lies the great divide of what it means to be a "nerd".

There are generally three theories of nerd. The first, and most vulgar, has arisen only recently, which is that the nerd is the person who likes nerd things. Certain things are identified with nerds, and those who like them are therefore nerds. Star wars is for nerds, if you like Star Wars you are a nerd. Circular reasoning aside, this is wrong. Being a nerd is not a consumer habit.

The second, and more plausible, is that is a characteristic of a person in the same way "graceful", "charismatic", or "athletic" is a characteristic. This is also wrong, and the mistake Plato is making in the comic. There are plenty of weirdos who aren’t nerds, and the particular kind of traits that is often referred to as nerdy is really just what would more properly be called a "dorky" or "geeky", an all too common mistake.

The real essence of a nerd, in reality, is a relationship with knowledge. A nerd is someone who is obsessed with a particular kind of knowledge, mostly the accumulation of facts in a particular area, and abstract reasoning. Certain things, like science fiction, are known to be nerdy only because they are areas that allow the nerd to memorize an enormous number of facts about things that matter little if any to the non-nerd. However, the nerd can be nerdy about anything, even non-nerdy things such as sports. Certain sports, like baseball, attract them in droves, and baseball nerds might outnumber sci-fi nerds in reality, they are just more camouflaged amongst the everyday population. The nerd does not have to behave or look in any particular way to be nerdy about a subject, they just have to be over obsessive about accumulated facts in a highly specific, narrow field.

For Nietzsche, this kind of puzzle solving way of looking at philosophy ("what is justice?" "what is truth?" "what is a table?" shut up nerd) divorced it from real life and limited its scope. Then again Nietzsche was in fact a weirdo so who is to say.

Nietzsche's problem with Plato is that he turned philosophy away from the more noble spirited "pro-socratic" philosophers, be it Heraclitus, who wept for the tragedy of human condition and saw all existence as strife, Democritus who bore all things cheerfully while traveling the world in search of wisdom, or greatest of all Thucydides, who had the rare courage to speak plainly about how the world really is, rather than how it ought to be.

Plato, on the other hand, turned philosophy into what can only be describe as "nerd shit". Plato wanted philosophy to solve puzzles and create abstract, perfect concepts. For Plato the true world was the world of the nerd, the world of concepts, of forms, of "pure" rationality divorced from the world.

However, Plato could rightly think of Nietzsche as a nerd, because he was a little obsessive weak weirdo who never left his basement, where as Plato was a highly sociable champion wrestler. Herein lies the great divide of what it means to be a "nerd".

There are generally three theories of nerd. The first, and most vulgar, has arisen only recently, which is that the nerd is the person who likes nerd things. Certain things are identified with nerds, and those who like them are therefore nerds. Star wars is for nerds, if you like Star Wars you are a nerd. Circular reasoning aside, this is wrong. Being a nerd is not a consumer habit.

The second, and more plausible, is that is a characteristic of a person in the same way "graceful", "charismatic", or "athletic" is a characteristic. This is also wrong, and the mistake Plato is making in the comic. There are plenty of weirdos who aren’t nerds, and the particular kind of traits that is often referred to as nerdy is really just what would more properly be called a "dorky" or "geeky", an all too common mistake.

The real essence of a nerd, in reality, is a relationship with knowledge. A nerd is someone who is obsessed with a particular kind of knowledge, mostly the accumulation of facts in a particular area, and abstract reasoning. Certain things, like science fiction, are known to be nerdy only because they are areas that allow the nerd to memorize an enormous number of facts about things that matter little if any to the non-nerd. However, the nerd can be nerdy about anything, even non-nerdy things such as sports. Certain sports, like baseball, attract them in droves, and baseball nerds might outnumber sci-fi nerds in reality, they are just more camouflaged amongst the everyday population. The nerd does not have to behave or look in any particular way to be nerdy about a subject, they just have to be over obsessive about accumulated facts in a highly specific, narrow field.

For Nietzsche, this kind of puzzle solving way of looking at philosophy ("what is justice?" "what is truth?" "what is a table?" shut up nerd) divorced it from real life and limited its scope. Then again Nietzsche was in fact a weirdo so who is to say.