Self-Loathing Tech Fans

Yeah I've met them too. It's because they know deep down that they are very weak. And they project their weakness onto the team they root for. They probably have uga family or friends who talk öööö to them throughout fall and eventually they cave and start agreeing with them on how pathetic they are. They're like Meek from Game of Thrones.
Reek, what a dickless bitch.
 
Everybody try not to take this the wrong way, but your average nerds aren't socially well adjusted people. We can have odd and frustrating behaviors that, at times, result in our social exclusion. This should have been self-evident to many of you, growing up. If we weren't all trying so hard to bond over a common purpose in our football team, it's likely that relatively few people who graduated from GT would ever talk to eachother for any non-business reason.

Everyone on StingTalk is a nerd except me.
 
Everybody try not to take this the wrong way, but your average nerds aren't socially well adjusted people. We can have odd and frustrating behaviors that, at times, result in our social exclusion. This should have been self-evident to many of you, growing up. If we weren't all trying so hard to bond over a common purpose in our football team, it's likely that relatively few people who graduated from GT would ever talk to eachother for any non-business reason.

 
I had ultra low expectations for the basketball team this. It actually made the season more exciting. They still did not make the tourney but overall had a great season based on my expectations. Same goes for the football team last season. As a lifelong Tech fan I've learned you have to accept it is what it is but their is no way I'm gonna poop on my team in the presence of another team's fan.
 
There's definitely a component of what you say "in the family" versus "outside the family." I might say "we'll probably lose to U[sic]GA" when talking about season expectations among Tech friends, but no way in hell am I saying that in front of Dwags, or on Facebook if I actually had any Dwag friends.

It's not a "set the expectations low and be pleasantly surprised" thing, though. It's more of a "preemptively insult Tech before somebody else does it" thing. There is also a dash of weakness it, I think. Like last season we got our butts kicked by Carolina - bad matchup, bad game, but NOT a reason to pack in the rest of the season. The team obviously didn't lay down and die, but some of our fans did.

JRjr
 
Everybody try not to take this the wrong way, but your average nerds aren't socially well adjusted people. We can have odd and frustrating behaviors that, at times, result in our social exclusion. This should have been self-evident to many of you, growing up. If we weren't all trying so hard to bond over a common purpose in our football team, it's likely that relatively few people who graduated from GT would ever talk to eachother for any non-business reason.

Georgia Tech Football 2017 - The funnest outdoor Asperger's gathering in America!
 
Everybody try not to take this the wrong way, but your average nerds aren't socially well adjusted people. We can have odd and frustrating behaviors that, at times, result in our social exclusion. This should have been self-evident to many of you, growing up. If we weren't all trying so hard to bond over a common purpose in our football team, it's likely that relatively few people who graduated from GT would ever talk to eachother for any non-business reason.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...ychologically-well-adjusted-are-gifted-people
 
I had ultra low expectations for the basketball team this. It actually made the season more exciting. They still did not make the tourney but overall had a great season based on my expectations. Same goes for the football team last season. As a lifelong Tech fan I've learned you have to accept it is what it is but their is no way I'm gonna poop on my team in the presence of another team's fan.
You're doing it again already.
 
A friend of mine is a college math prof (and his wife is math prof at GT). They are seeing for the first time, "dumb, nerds" in this generation of millennials. It used to be an oxymoron. But not anymore!
 
most Tech fans don't actually know anything about football, either. they don't know why or how, but they overheard someone complaining about not winning a game and they think we must suck.
 
most Tech fans don't actually know anything about football, either. they don't know why or how, but they overheard someone complaining about not winning a game and they think we must suck.

hqdefault.jpg
 
most Tech fans don't actually know anything about football, either. they don't know why or how, but they overheard someone complaining about not winning a game and they think we must suck.

Sadly, this was pretty much me in early college. I was pretty stoked about basketball (it was in the early Hewitt days) when I started at Tech, but football was more of a do it because everyone else was thing. It wasn't really until probably the 2008 season that I started getting into it (trying to keep up with player news, following rankings/standings, actually watching or even going to away games). And my fandom has just grown since then.

All of that said, I'm generally a pretty optimistic person and get super annoyed by the self-loathing among us...especially when it's someone in the stands at a game. I've definitely sat near my share of öööö faces that relish any opportunity to complain.
 
I've got a friend who is a little younger than me, around 40, married with a couple of kids. Husband and wife are both Tech grads; I'm friends with them on Facebook, and I've met some of their other friends in real life and online. They're Tech fans - they have season tix for football, go to some road football games, go to some basketball games. Probably slightly above average in engagement, as Tech fans go.

The thing about this bunch is that they all seem like what I can only describe as "self-loathing Tech fans." Different from the bandwagon fans that are barely fans in the first place and looking for a reason to hop off, different from the irrational fans who expect us be Alabama and fire everybody if we're not, sort of different from the chronic "throw it to Calvin" know-it-all complainers.

It's a weird sort of preemptive pessimism. A bad season (2015) isn't an aberration, it's the fact that we made a bowl for the previous 19 years that's the aberration and the bad year is how it's supposed to be and forevermore will be. No opportunity to take a shot at Tech is passed up (for example, tonight's soccer sellout prompts a snarky comment about the fact that we don't fill the stadium up every week). Losses are never seen because if we get behind, that means it's time to leave to beat traffic; wins are just a set-up for future disappointment.

Is this common among other fanbases, or is it some oddity of the Tech psyche? I find it really annoying - I'm generally pessimistic, but nevertheless, I'm able to enjoy and celebrate wins. I'm more likely to defend our school and team than I am to join the media or the opposing fans at taking shots at our shortcomings. I just don't get it - anybody else encountered this type?

JRjr
Is this a serious question? How long have you been a GT fan? What you described is the majority of the fan base. Do you keep your head buried in a hole? Most Tech alumni 40+ years in age have seen how fragile the program is. Especially those that watched Dodd almost dismantle GT sports as an Athletic Director in the late 70's and early 80's. I used to be one of those fans that thought GT should compete with the best on the football field. Slowly my opinion has changed. I am 44 years old and I now understand just how fragile our football program is. PJ is keeping us on a level playing field because of his coaching, but until the school, not the Athletic Department, but the school itself makes the conscious decision to support successful sports programs and not look at them with disdain, will the program ever not be in a constant state of fragility.

:bigcry:myself.
 
Last edited:
They're everywhere. An old Auburn friend was telling me about calling his father, also a lifelong Auburn fan, in tears the night Auburn won the MNC against Oregon only for his dad to be more irritated by the closeness of the game than ecstatic over winning a title. I've met my share of people in BDS who are this way and it's obnoxious, but unavoidable - especially at a place like Tech. Because:

Everybody try not to take this the wrong way, but your average nerds aren't socially well adjusted people. We can have odd and frustrating behaviors that, at times, result in our social exclusion. This should have been self-evident to many of you, growing up. If we weren't all trying so hard to bond over a common purpose in our football team, it's likely that relatively few people who graduated from GT would ever talk to eachother for any non-business reason.
I am tempted to quote this as many times as the board software will allow.
 
I care too much about you than to encourage you to spend any more time than necessary on this forum
< 3 Fortunately, I just had a vision of the aftermath of such an endeavor and I am having second thoughts. Looked a bit like this:

anakin_burning_by_spleenriper.jpg
 
Back
Top