Calling someone a 'Geek' or 'Nerd' Should be Considered a Hate Crime According to Dr. Sonja Falck
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A psychotherapist named Dr. Sonja Flack has been stirring up social media after she said on national television that calling some a “geek” or a “nerd” should be considered a hate crime.
…Yeah she said that…
She’s a psychology lecturer at the University of Eat London who recently appeared on an episode of “Good Morning Britain” with Bobby Seagull who is a mathematician, writer, and teacher who is a self proclaimed “proud geek.”
During the program Falk says that when someone is being ridiculed for being an “egghead” or a “brainiac” that the person who says these specific terms should have to face legal consequences.
“I think people find it startling because very high IQ people are a minority group in society who are very much ignored, they’re not understood and largely neglected. It is the case that very high IQ people very often are bullied at school, for example. They’re a target for being bullied quite viciously.”
Seagull on the other hand says that many see the word “geek” as a badge of honor!
“While the term geek and nerd has historically been seen as being negative, people have now embraced the term and seen it as positive. I think with geeks and nerds, if you see it as a negative thing, it could be negative, but if you embrace it, actually to be a geek means a good thing.”
Falck argued that it’s about “neurodiversity” meaning there are differences in people’s brains – “is an aspect of individual difference, which really to to be recognized by society. If you look at those legislations that relate to hate crimes, hate crimes is simply about somebody being targeted in a negative way for who they are, and a person with a very high IQ who comes across in a different way is targeted in that way. So I just think an individual difference that should be respected.”
However the commentors on the “Good Morning Britain” Twitter pretty much shot her down.
“I think the ‘nerd’ and ‘geek’ have taken ownership of these words, flipping from negative to positive,” says one user.
“Geek chic is a ‘thing,’ people to be them now, if someone attempts to use that as an insult today it is laughable. It not ‘hate crime,’ it’s a compliment!”
“Let’s make every insult a hate crime”
“Better build a hundred prisons more. Stupidity is dangerous.”
Omg this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. I get called a nerd everyday because I’m a science major, I think it’s funny. Now, if she was talking specifically about bullying in school and how teachers and parents need to educate their children on how to be kind to one another’s differences; that would be a much more productive and legitimate argument. No, calling someone a geek or nerd is not emotionally damaging or segregative enough to be considered a “hate crime,” a hate crime is a serious life impacting issue.
*slow claps*