Comment by rightbyte
4 days ago
> It can even be cringe to some when someone like yourself acts as instigator
Yes it can feel cringe but I would argue we need to just accept it as prosocial and not cringe. We are cringe for thinking normal social things are cringe.
Like, I would probably have thought OP was after my money like 5 years ago. But now I would just assume good faith.
I am fully convinced that "cringe" is just the death throws of patriarchal societal engineering.
It's like "Well, sure, they can be gay, but ~holding hands in public~? We've got to have some sense of morality around here or we're no better than animals!"
Living with your parents in your 20s isn't cringe, it's a powerfule economic decision. Having or not having kids isn't cringe it's a personal decision. Carrying a dog in a purse is cringe, it's practical. Being an impoverished drug addict isn't cringe. Crying out for help with mental illness isn't cringe. Telling loved ones you love them in public isn't cringe.
Inviting people to continue sociallizing with you at a later date isn't cringe, that's just fucking friendship.
People are using the word to label entirely regular perfectly acceptable behavior as if it is genuinely bad simply because they don't like it. Sure, okay, you personally don't like it when people express interest in you beyond your 30 second attention span, but who the fuck gave you the right to decide that society can't make friends in public? Damn, okay, OP said it was cringe to ask people if they want to hang out, guess I'll just die a hermit.
I agree.
There is a need for the word 'cringe' for wannabe, fake, dishonest, superficial etc. expressions that are embarrassing. But it is way over used and should not be used on people who are trying to mock them. It is way too easy to be a critique.
Do we need a new word? We already call fakes fakes and the dishonest dishonest. We already have embarrassing embarrassed.
Really, I suppose it's not the words so much as the useage. People used to call some of the same perfectly normal things embarrassing rather than cringe in order to try to police behavior; like when telling your kids you love them in public is suddenly some sort of sin or when macho men aren't allowed to defer to their wives' expert opinion because "their friends say it's embarrassing"