Yes.
Absolutely and unequivocally yes.
However, to leave it at that would be doing an injustice to the matter at hand.
Some people say that the word “nerd” means something different today than it did in the past. I say those people are full of shit. It means exactly what it’s always meant, but the stigma attached to it has all but completely vanished. In many ways, in fact, it has even reversed.
Back when I was growing up in the 1990s, the game shop I used to go to was on a street on which shoppers would walk from store to store like bees moving from flower to flower, the goods they’d purchased carried in bags proudly displaying the names and logos of the shops they were purchased from… except for the game shop.
When I went in there to buy a 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons Arms and Equipment Guide, I walked out the store with my purchase in a non-descript brown paper bag like I was some kind of wino.
For all the younger people reading this, these were the days before Amazon. If you wanted a book, you drove your ass to the store and bought one. Niche hobby shops like that one needed all the publicity they could get. I don’t know for a fact that what I’m about to suggest was the case, but I strongly suspect someone crunched the numbers and decided they would lose more customers by putting their logo on their bags, outing their customers as nerds to random passersby, than they would gain new customers from using that logo to get their name spread around.
It could just as easily be the case that they were cheap.
Being a nerd was tough in the late 80s and early 90s, and D&D was like the Alcatraz of nerddom. It was a hobby you picked up when you finally accepted that you were never going to fit in even with run-of-the-mill nerds. You could go home after a day of getting picked on at school only to have your mom confront you about some bullshit she saw on the news about D&D being linked to worshipping Satan.
I’m not sure exactly what caused the cultural shift since then. Maybe it was the internet. Or it might have had something to do with bullies finding themselves washing the Ferraris of the nerds they used to shove into lockers. I don’t know. I was too busy playing D&D, I guess. But whatever it was, everyone seemed to let go of the rods they’d had crammed up their asses for so long about nerds.
And now things have fishtailed the other way. Nerd culture has taken over. Everybody want a piece of that hot nerd action. From blockbuster Marvel movies to celebrity scientists to hit shows like Stranger Things and Big Bang Theory. Sure, the latter is unfunny pandering garbage, but the fact that it’s intentionally and successfully capitalizing on the public’s thirst for nerd-centric content is… Well, it’s something I find comforting.
I would argue that D&D remains the standard bearer for what it is to be a nerd. A lot of Marvel movie fans might just be into well made action movies with a bunch of quippy lines. Big Bang Theory fans may simply enjoy a half-hour of brain rot that makes them feel smart. There’s nothing inherently nerdy about any of that.
But if you enjoy spending time sitting around a table with your friends, doing math while you pretend to be an elven wizard, you’re a fucking nerd.
And that’s awesome.