I guess we're all cringe

and that's okay

I remember when “cringe” entered the chat. Came on strong. Seemed like the internet was built for it. All those people out there with cameras and internet access sharing their lives, their weirdness, their kinks. People showing their weird haircuts or their Simpsons dildo collection or lip-syncing their favorite scenes from Twilight. People licking their grandmother’s colostomy bag for shits and giggles (sorry about that; I’m a horror writer). Cringe had so much to tackle, so much “content” to brand, to feed on, that its explosion was immediate. Cringe memes. Cringe accounts. Cringe as insult. Cringe became the new thing you didn’t know you had to worry about being (shout out to your anxiety!).

Anyway, this isn’t an academic paper, so fuck smooth transitions. You know that things that burn real hot also tend to burn out real fast, and that’s what happened to cringe. A few months after it exploded, someone told me on Twitter that books were cringe. Books. Fuck me. I’m the cringiest dude you’ve ever met. Anyway, everything became cringe. Kerouac? Cringe. Music with real instruments? Cringe and maybe boomer, depending on your luck. Politics? Cringe. Feminism in this economy? Cringe. Books? Cringe. Dancing? Cringe. Hanging out with your grandma? Cringe. You get the point; it lost its punch, its edge, its meaning.

Ah, but meaning is complicated, right? Very complicated. As a writer, I’m always thinking about meaning. I’m sure many others do the same things for a variety of reasons. The point is, meaning is malleable. It changes, adapts. That’s why we have to think about it all the time and ask things like, “What do you mean?” Well, cringe morphed quickly, like most things these days. It’s still around and some folks still use it as if it’s a blade or something, but you know what I mean. As an “insult” it does the same damage as “doodoohead.” In fact, I think cringe is almost at that tipping point when folks start reclaiming a word and using it proudly.

I was scrolling on Instagram last night and saw a video of a person with short hair and bunch of piercings–ears, nose, lip, eyebrow–singing along with a rock song in German and drinking a beer. The video was framed as cringe by a page dedicated to cringe things, but it didn’t feel like that to me. It didn’t make me feel like videos of people talking about the effectiveness of conversion camps. Like, seriously? What the fuck is wrong with you? That’s cringe, not this video of a person jamming out by themselves sipping a beer. That’s not cringe. That looks like a fucking good time to me. Would I record myself doing that and post on social media? Nah, but it’s cold outside, so I was pumping myself up to take the dog out last night and did a little dance while listening to The Bundos Band to get my blood flowing. Maybe that's cringe, but I don’t give a fuck because music is the best thing and shit that makes you bang your head or tap your fingers or move your feet is the best kind of shit.

You know I love rabbit holes, so down the cringe rabbit hole I went. It was weird, but I kinda enjoyed it. It showed me that cringe has been applied to so many things for so long that now it means nothing. Cringe is an aesthetic, a way of labeling and framing content, and anything that remotely resembles that aesthetic is immediately considered cringe even if a lot of it is just people being something not considered “normal.” We have a long history of doing this. If you need references, just look at fucking everything.

When you watch “cringe” videos, you know things are gonna get weird and maybe a little uncomfortable. That’s how the internet works, remember? We should all be a little fucking uncomfortable here even at the best of times. Anyway, you watch and you know it’s a cringe video because that’s what it looks like and you recognize the vibe, the aesthetic, but if you watch one more second or watch with a critical eye, you’ll see that a lot of it is just people doing whatever brings them joy. Folks modeling homemade costumes. People trying to be funny and failing miserably, but maybe they were trying to make someone smile, and that’s awesome. Couples beings cutesy together. People with no rhythm trying to dance. People with normal voices singing along at the top of their lungs with their favorite songs. You get the point. You’ve seen the videos. Would I do those things, record myself doing them, and them post them online? Nope. Would you? Probably no, but if you want to, that’s cool.

Listen, there’s a group of pasty, bloated billionaires setting the country on fire and hurting all of us, so let people do whatever the fuck makes them happy, yeah? If books are cringe, that’s fine. I’m cringe. If you’re lucky enough to know how to read and have access to books and you choose not to read, I don’t give a flying fuck about your uneducated opinions on anything, so have a nice day and let me read in peace. I know February is almost here, but it’s never too late to add stuff to our resolutions. In my case, I will try even harder to let people enjoy whatever brings them joy. Maybe that’s cringe, but that’s fine. Have a great day and I hope you get to do stuff that makes you happy today. Thanks for reading.