[lieden]

I think the last sentence says it all:

He is an expert on the subject, and the reason I called him for the piece was that I had noticed the praise for his book, “Nerds: Who They Are and Why We Need More of Them.”

So... he has no interest in "banning" these words, he wants attention and for more people to buy copies of his book.

[mcantor]

Full disclosure: I took this guy's class in college.

I don't think that wanting to symbolically "ban" a word, and writing a book about its effects on our culture, are mutually exclusive.