Why Are So Many Nerds Libertarians?

BrendanMcGrail writes "Why do so many nerds seem to lean toward the Libertarian end of the spectrum? As a leftist, I know there are many people who share my ideological views, but have very little in common with me in terms of profession and non-work interests. Is the community's political bent directly tied to our higher than average economic success?"

Comments

Re:source?

[Yoozer]

"Remember kids, "data" is not the plural form of "anecdote".

Re:source?

[Anonymous Coward]

"

Sorry, my OCD kicked in.

Stupid Book

[thegnu]

Yeah, I started to read it once, and I couldn't get past the first section, which goes something like this:

Who is Milton Farbley? In the days of his youth his tongue would dry out and the dryness would make him hate the world. But was it the world he hated, or himself? Was it that he was poor, and therefore stupid? Now, old, his ass chapped from all the walking around, he started to question if other people weren't as unbearably lame as he himself.

And so I skipped ahead about 50 pages:

and it was all like, the betrayal perpetrated by Susan was pleasing to her uterus. It made it squinch tight like a ball of rubber bands when she twisted the...

Then another 50...

John couldn't bear to look at himself. Weathered features not even barely covering up an expression of rank stupidity that peirced his stupid soul with it's stupid stupidity. God how John hates himself.

Then another 50...

...but why? the steamy night was fucking unpleasant, and she could only bear to breathe shallowly while thinking of how stupid and goddamn filthy other people were. God--if there is in fact a God--how she hates those fucking people.

And so on. I'm pretty sure I got a good idea of the point of the book without having to subject myself to more than 40 random paragraphs or so. Everyone I've ever met that says they idolize Ayn Rand turns out to be a self-involved, spoiled whore.

God I hate her. But truly, do I hate her more than I hate myself? It was a muggy, shitty Sunday in St Petersburg, FL, and he began to question whether he was just posting to slashdot in a vain attempt to eke a teensy bit of self-recognition out of the Internet once again, or did he really believe that posting some inane bullshit about Ayn Rand was truly noteworthy?

He got up from his mother's computer;smelled the stale milk from the bottom of his empty coffee cup. God, he had to take a shit. And he bets it's going to be smelly, because God is spiteful like that....

Re:Because we all know

[squiggleslash]

I suspect, from the description, it was this.

Bob the Angry Flower rules!

Re:source?

[peacefinder]

Remember kids, "data" is not the plural form of "anecdote".

I've read that in a bunch of places, but I have yet to see a supporting study.