Leonid Fridman creates a harsh picture of American geeks in his essay, "America Needs Its Nerds." Fridman presents the argument that America is slowly falling behind other industrialized nations because athletes are constantly praised for their physical abilities while those with intellectual ability are snubbed. In his "America Needs Its Nerds" essay, Fridman develops his argument by using harsh word choices when discussing nerds to create an intense diction that juxtapositions nerds and jocks and appeals to pathos to show why America really needs its nerds. The diction that Fridman uses has either extremely negative or positive connotations, drawing attention to the issues about the way people treat intellectualism in America. For example,
