Nate Silver may be America’s newest sweetheart since his incredibly accurate predictions make Jesus look like an amateur with all that walking on water jazz. But Silver’s love of the math made him an outcast growing up, even more so than his love of the men.
“I’ve always felt like something of an outsider,” Silver told The Guardian. “I’ve always had friends, but I’ve always come from an outside point of view. I think that’s important. If you grow up gay, or in a household that’s agnostic, when most people are religious, then from the get-go, you are saying that there are things that the majority of society believes that I don’t believe.”
When asked what made him more of a misfit, Silver responds, “Probably the numbers stuff since I had that from when I was six.”
Now that he’s an adult, however, being gay still is no picnic, as Silver learned when right-wing blogger David Cameron dismissed him as an “effeminate man with a soft-sounding voice.”
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Silver, ultimately got the last laugh when sales of his book, The Signal and the Noise, skyrocketed 800% overnight, becoming the second bestselling book in the country. So for geeks and gays alike, it gets better…and a lot richer.
2eo
As both of those things I’ve met more resistance for my geekery than gayness. Although I have been attacked with a scalpel for the gayness so I suppose that tips the balance somewhat.
The day I prefer going to a club over a Red Alert 2 LANparty will be the day I know I’ve died.
Cam
Then again, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were legally able to Marry.
That said, I think Silver is impressive and thought it was very telling that the right wing thinks calling somebody effeminate is somehow an effective take down of their fact based math.
jwrappaport
@2eo: I haven’t thought about Red Alert in years. What a great game. And amen to the tribulations of geekdom.