Fundamentally, nerds are more likely to hold non-mainstream political views because they are more likely to have picked up their political ideas from the internet, from other nerdy sources like political books, or from nerd peers who got their views from nerdy sources. Non-nerds are more likely to have gotten their views from sources like school, TV news, or non-nerd peers. Because non-nerd sources were more centralized they were more likely to be controlled by the political memeplexes that were already the most powerful, like mainline Democrats/Republicans, and not include niche or taboo views. The internet, on the other hand, favors views that are well-optimized for grassroots virality (with a secondary advantage for being good at taking control of website moderation, though this can also spark backlash). There may be psychological reasons why people favor the exact views they do, but first and foremost any analysis should keep in mind the viral nature of ideas.
Of course, this dynamic is changing as more of the population is heavily online, though there is inertia both on the individual level (people tend to stick with the views they are already committed to) and the group level (views that are already dominant in a social group have an advantage). Increasingly the nerd/non-nerd division is not between online and offline but between more and less nerdy websites (ordered something like political-blogs>Tumblr>4chan>Reddit>Twitter>Tiktok, though some of the biggest political blogs might have a less nerdy audience). As a result, niche and taboo views are increasingly popular among non-nerds, though the kinds of views which gain popularity on Tiktok are different from those that gain popularity from long-form political blogs. Furthermore, the internet provided a space for the development and refinement of once-niche views which in turn managed to seize control of (or at least influence) more mainstream institutions like news outlets and political parties. So even people who still get their views from the news and mainstream institutions tend to just be downstream of whatever internet memeplexes have managed to take over those institutions. This includes the linked article, which is essentially an extension of an internet flame-war where the ideology which now runs NPR is using it to take shots at those tech CEOs who have been converted by enemy ideologies.
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Fundamentally, nerds are more likely to hold non-mainstream political views because they are more likely to have picked up their political ideas from the internet, from other nerdy sources like political books, or from nerd peers who got their views from nerdy sources. Non-nerds are more likely to have gotten their views from sources like school, TV news, or non-nerd peers. Because non-nerd sources were more centralized they were more likely to be controlled by the political memeplexes that were already the most powerful, like mainline Democrats/Republicans, and not include niche or taboo views. The internet, on the other hand, favors views that are well-optimized for grassroots virality (with a secondary advantage for being good at taking control of website moderation, though this can also spark backlash). There may be psychological reasons why people favor the exact views they do, but first and foremost any analysis should keep in mind the viral nature of ideas.
Of course, this dynamic is changing as more of the population is heavily online, though there is inertia both on the individual level (people tend to stick with the views they are already committed to) and the group level (views that are already dominant in a social group have an advantage). Increasingly the nerd/non-nerd division is not between online and offline but between more and less nerdy websites (ordered something like political-blogs>Tumblr>4chan>Reddit>Twitter>Tiktok, though some of the biggest political blogs might have a less nerdy audience). As a result, niche and taboo views are increasingly popular among non-nerds, though the kinds of views which gain popularity on Tiktok are different from those that gain popularity from long-form political blogs. Furthermore, the internet provided a space for the development and refinement of once-niche views which in turn managed to seize control of (or at least influence) more mainstream institutions like news outlets and political parties. So even people who still get their views from the news and mainstream institutions tend to just be downstream of whatever internet memeplexes have managed to take over those institutions. This includes the linked article, which is essentially an extension of an internet flame-war where the ideology which now runs NPR is using it to take shots at those tech CEOs who have been converted by enemy ideologies.
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