My latest column at The Week focuses on the upcoming White House Correspondents Dinner. If it’s not already obvious, the high school symbolism associated with what is affectionately known as “nerd prom” couldn’t be more obvious.
But this time, many of the cool kids will be self-proclaimed nerds.
This is a big deal. It turns out that nerd domination isn’t merely relegated to physics labs or tech companies in Silicon Valley. Today, they also run the most powerful city in the world — Washington, DC.
Is nothing sacred?
An excerpt from the column:
FishbowlDC, the gossip site that covers DC nerds the way TMZ covers Hollywood celebrities, has been chronicling this trend for awhile now. A few years ago, the site actually proposed a reality show for “Boy Banders” like Dave Weigel and Ezra Klein, called The Nerdy Shore. (This was in the days before Nate Silver became a celebrity. Today, he may be king of all political nerds.)
But being nerdy isn’t just cool. Rahm Emanuel told The New York Times that former OMB director Peter Orszag “made nerdy sexy.”
Of course, as usual, the internet is to blame.
To find out how and why, read the whole thing here.