Cringe culture, the act of publicly deciding something is “cringy” and that other people aren’t allowed to enjoy it. The whole concept is completely ridiculous; if I like something and it doesn’t hurt anyone else, who’s to tell me I can’t enjoy it?
This has been a problem for a long time, and it needs to stop. A lot of times people never even take the time to experience the thing they consider to be so gross, and just jump onto the hate bandwagon. I’m not saying it is wrong to dislike something, not at all, but to publicly shame an entire fan base of something just because you personally don’t enjoy it is wrong and makes you a bully.
It wouldn’t even be that much of a problem, except it has become so normalized that almost everyone does it, even sometimes unintentionally. For example, I have legit been told to kill myself for liking certain video games, the shear audacity of someone to tell someone that just for liking a game that they don’t just baffles me.
It’s honestly gotten to the point where it’s so bad I don’t like to even mention I like certain things. Oh you like Fortnite? You’re a pre-pubescent boy. You like Pokemon Go? Get back to 2016. You like Creepypasta? Ok edgy 12 year old. These are the kind of NICER responses I get, I can’t even talk about some of the bad ones because this is a school blog.
I could go on about this for a really long time but my main point is don’t be a child about it, that is legit what it looks like, a whiny child plugging their nose and pointing at something, saying it’s stinky or has cooties, and other childish insults.
If you don’t like something, just keep it to yourself unless your opinion is called for, no one wants to hear something terrible about something they enjoy. It just makes them feel bad or not want to talk to you anymore.
I know this probably won’t make an impact on its own, but maybe if enough people call out how toxic the nature of cringe culture is we can all put a stop to it. I guess my last point, is just to be kind, no one appreciates being criticized on something they enjoy. I also urge you to if you catch yourself trying to participate in cringe culture, you stop yourself, and apologize to people you may have hurt before by making fun of what they like.
