David Brooks nails geek- and nerd-dom in his Friday Times op-ed, and ties the current cultural status of geeks and nerds in an important way to Bush’s anti-intellectualism:
The news that being a geek is cool has apparently not permeated either junior high schools or the Republican Party. George Bush plays an interesting role in the tale of nerd ascent. With his professed disdain for intellectual things, he’s energized and alienated the entire geek cohort, and with it most college-educated Americans under 30. Newly militant, geeks are more coherent and active than they might otherwise be.