The Paradigm Shift between “The Virgin and the Chad”
By: Leonardo Galletti
Tags: Communism, Politics, Hollywood, Dystopia, Capitalism

From the 90s to maybe even as far back as the 80s, there has been a tacit push by Hollywood and all other facets of pop culture to present socially isolated, “nerdy/”geeky” people, or people that society otherwise deems as losers and outcasts such as goths, LGBT folks, anime kids, etc. as some kind of oppressed minority. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, because these folks definitely faced way more bullying and harassment in the 80s and 90s.

But post millennium, the paradigm has shifted almost all the way around. In our modern society which finds itself teetering off the edge of a steep cliff into total dystopian nightmare, the Geeks and the Nerds specifically have managed to carve out their own niche. Computer scientist majors, and programmers would have been laughed at 40 years ago; now they could be your boss making well over 6 figures. One look at the years top blockbuster summer action movies gives just a brief glimpse into what academics refer to as ‘Capitalist realism’.

As Zizek put it: “it is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism,”. For a brutally visual encapsulation of this concept, watch this short, 2 -minute video clip from Adam Curtis’ PHENOMENAL documentary, Hyper-normalization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tnl-51cSYg

A niche version of the extremely popular “virgin vs Chad“ meme

Here’s a sobering experience that I subjected myself to: I asked everyone I know, whether they’re right wing or left, educated or not, Boomer, Gen-X, Millennial or Zoomer a simple question: do you imagine that the rest of the 21st century, and whatever comes after, will be overall positive and Utopian, or negative and dystopian. All but one of the answers were negative.

Additionally, it is extremely pertinent who exactly held such optimism. Despite being an unapologetic capitalist, who trades stocks, and deifies Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, my friend “Joe” is, in fact, my friend. Despite his reactionary interest in the last bastion of hope in a Utopian future i.e. Silicon Valley and the mega, multi-national tech conglomerates, Joe is a great friend who always has your back, is extremely generous and likable, and always a blast to party with.

This brings me to my conclusion: The once shunned ‘freaks and geeks’ of yester-year, have managed to become some of the most disgustingly rich and diabolical people the world has ever known. Technology should be a tool to enrich and nurture mankind. It should not be used not devastate the environment, shred what little civil rights and privacy we have left, and drone bomb entire innocent families in the middle east.

The economic downturn of the 1970s helped to extinguish any remaining embers smoldering from the revolutionary yearning for change of the 1960s that we all hold so deeply in our hearts. Academics, artists, activists of all kinds retreated and gave up on their quest to save American civil society. And with a near decade of Reaganomics coming their way, who could blame them. But while most of these people retreated into poverty, disillusionment, and despair, the burgeoning Computer industry created an entire cyberspace to retreat into. This digital retreat has now transformed every aspect of our daily lives so thoroughly that I need not explain them in detail.

The very people that were mocked and laughed at, the so called “virgins”, “neck-beards” “nerds” “geeks: etc. have now become some of the most powerful and potentially evil people in the world. All of the people that I know in real life who fit firmly on the “virgin” side of the Virgin vs Chad paradigm were all Trump voters; disgusting people inside and out. Take a quick look at the faces of every school shooter. It is always the face of a “virgin”, someone who is clearly a social outcast, but by their own volition. The sociopaths who engage in school shootings, 9 times out of 10, leave a manifesto explaining that their actions were a result of sexual humiliation, inspiration from Trump and the alt-Right. As an aside, its important to reflect on the connections that German academics in the 1930s made between growing fascism and the connection between Social and Sexual humiliation.

To their warped world view: it is society’s fault for not catering reality to fit their exact desires. Now that “nerd culture” has gone mainstream and that *gasp* *clutches pearls* Superhero Movies and Star Wars is drawing in new target audiences that aren’t just 16–36 year old men, these ‘virgins’ are forced to confront the uncomfortable truth that it was never computers or video games or Dungeons and Dragons that made them so unlikable by their peers. No, that nastiness and inability to maintain a healthy and non-toxic social life was an ingrained part of who they are. Things like comic books and video games allow these people to perpetually re-enforce their own isolation, while being given a slow-drip IV of Mountain Dew, Doritos and day-old Taco Bell leftovers.

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To anyone reading this who might sadly identify as an incel, or virgin. I want you to know that it is not too late for you. I used to internalize so much of the same misogyny when I was growing up and out of shape. If i had never started putting an effort into my appearance, and if I had never come to the realization that I had deep flaws that needed correcting, I very well could have gone down this dark path you have chosen. But it wasnt too late for me.

I used to toss and turn at night, praying to god that I would find love and companionship; that I would find my soulmate. And in what felt like a blink of an eye, I met her, and I’ve never been happier. Its not too late.