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I grew up in Western Europe and experienced exactly what the author of the article is talking about so it’s not just an American experience.

However, there was a strong American cultural influence e.g. shows like Saved by the Bell, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Simpsons etc were all popular and had strong nerd as social outcast themes.

However I don’t think they were the cause of this social dynamic, it was much older and entrenched.

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This may be very dependent on individual class composition too. I was always a nerd, and can say my school experience was very nerd-inclusive, bully-exclusive. I attribute this to the strong girl groups in my class who seemingly had a rather clear sense of what's right and ethical. Any bullying was shot down very quickly.

As a caveat, it could of course be that someone else in my class had a completely different experience of the same events.

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