Blame Matt Damon:
He made the lunatic Howard Zinn a household name with his absurd movie, Good Will Hunting.
Besides that history-ravaging crime, it was a childish fantasy of what a genius is by a bright-but-normal regular guy: Cool, hip, handsome, muscular, street smart, but also able to outdo every other struggling full-time junior genius while scrubbing floors for a paycheck: all things to all people. James Bond as a Janitor.
I was merely a garden-variety genius: I took most of the math and science awards extant - I honestly lost track - was voted Most Intelligent, and was debating “intellectuals” at 16, partly because it was more stimulating, but partly because my peers found me boring, while I found them perplexing.
I could hardly get a date to save my life, even though I respected women, and some of them liked me as a friend (and, note well, none of them described me as creepy, though some said I was nice but boring).
I was, in short, a classic nerd (now, geek, or some other derogation).
Like to like: I knew a smattering of fellow nerds wherever I went. Some were fairly good looking; some were fairly athletic. None were like Matt Damon wrote it.
If there is someone like Will Hunting in real life, I have yet to meet him.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who spotted that propaganda piece for what it was.