Nerd Culture and the Star Trek Paradox

Nerds are living in a golden age.

The billion-dollar movie club now includes:

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
• The Avengers (2012)
• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
• Iron Man 3 (2013)
• Captain America: Civil War (2016)
• The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
• The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
• Rogue One (2016)
• Star Wars: Episode I (1999)
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
• The Dark Knight (2008)

The current top six highest grossing movies of 2017 includes:

• Wonder Woman
• Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2
• Spider-Man: Homecoming
• Logan

Let’s add in the DC “Berlantiverse”, the Marvel Netflix universe, and the X-Men shows Legion and The Gifted. And I’m not even bringing in shows like The Walking Dead and Preacher which are also based on graphic novels.

Notice a pattern?

Nerd culture is popular culture. This is a huge cultural shift from the nerd culture of the 80s or 90s. Watch Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and you get a good picture of how pop culture treated “nerds.” Computers, technology, synthesizers, integrated and multicultural — nerds are anti-hegemonic in the 20th…