the volume of great stuff we never see because somebody was afraid it was cringe is among the more damning aesthetic phenomena of this sad epoch - ThreadSky

themountaingoats.bsky.social • 6 days ago

the volume of great stuff we never see because somebody was afraid it was cringe is among the more damning aesthetic phenomena of this sad epoch

Reposted from PISS_SHITTER

heartbreaking! the most talented young mind you know is obsessed with not appearing “cringe”

Comments

down10.bsky.social•6 days ago

This is why the "I am cringe, but I am free" ethic is so important.

down10.bsky.social•6 days ago

skullingway.bsky.social•6 days ago

Kill the part of you that cringes

mauserfrau.bsky.social•6 days ago

Seconding this HARD. It is the most freeing thing.

erocy.world•6 days ago

All of my favorite artists ever were doing ‘cringe’ things since they started, before they were famous

bwalsh.bsky.social•6 days ago

And yet there is never a reduction in the stuff that *is* cringe.

rickinnis.bsky.social•6 days ago

Dunning-Krueger strikes again

johngreensbluesky.bsky.social•6 days ago

I became a better writer when I realized it is better to be cringe than to be cold.

sdskuld.bsky.social•6 days ago

Sounds like an argument for wearing an awful Christmas sweater in February.

williamcook.dev•6 days ago

Banning Looking for Alaska is infinitely more cringe than writing Looking for Alaska ever could be. Even if "deadpan" was in every sentence.

themountaingoats.bsky.social•6 days ago

writing is such an act of openness, even if it's cryptic writing, satirical writing, cutting writing like Dorothy Parker...it must first be willing to say what it means without reference to how it might be taken, that's the first errand I think

kategodart.bsky.social•6 days ago

either because it's cringe or just no cash to do it, either way aesthetics need some fuckin' work these days

happymemeco.bsky.social•6 days ago

In Walmart a few weeks ago I saw a lady in a sweatshirt with huge letters that said "Your fear of looking stupid is holding you back."

It hit me so hard that I started my book outline the next day. It doesn't matter if it's stupid or cringe. What matters is to create. Thanks random sweatshirt lady.

skullingway.bsky.social•6 days ago

There’s something beautiful about this moment happening in a Walmart, somehow

brewtowne.bsky.social•6 days ago

Good luck! Creating my initial WIP since 2019... 🤏🏻

themountaingoats.bsky.social•6 days ago

That is beautiful! You never know where you’re gonna be when the spirit decides to speak directly to you

editorbuck.bsky.social•6 days ago

This is a big part of why I love the furry community. They took a look at the very concept of cringe and said resoundingly 'FUCK THAT SHIT'.

boarprince.bsky.social•5 days ago

we had the era of giggling at "sparkledog fursonas" in private livejournal groups and then grew up and realized those sparkledogs rocked

hazyshadeofwintyr.bsky.social•6 days ago

I'm joining the War on Cringe on the side of Cringe.

dappercat.bsky.social•6 days ago

it's a real negation of the human experience: fucking up, eating shit, dust off, do it again

amiyatzin.bsky.social•6 days ago

A kid I knew who is one of the most talented writers i’ve met in my years as a novelist, editor, and english teacher has given up creating because she feels like people would judge her for writing what she likes. Pathologically evil society we live in.

skullingway.bsky.social•6 days ago

I feel like I keep seeing writers do this thing where they have to acknowledge 37 levels of self awareness before even starting on the topic they’re talking about and man it is exhausting

mopbucket.bsky.social•6 days ago

I think some of this is millennials and younger seeing the DIY/outsider art movements of the 80s/90s as toxically self-indulgent, and though the effect is smothering I don't think they're entirely wrong, either, even if it cuts a little close to this Gen-X heart

themountaingoats.bsky.social•6 days ago

art is inherently self indulgent — even the most programmatic art. without self indulgence, no art

mopbucket.bsky.social•6 days ago

Oh absolutely. I think younger peoples' perception of that era is more nuanced-- a matter of degree or kind?

cokes.bsky.social•6 days ago

We must convince the youth that Bat Out of Hell is good, actually, and all doors will open from there

evilmam.bsky.social•6 days ago

I think the concept of the 'guilty pleasure' is part of this too; I like something but I'm afraid it's not cool enough to like unironically so I have to voice my appreciation in this sideways, joking-not-joking way, like I'm better than all the other people who also like it.

abracadabrad.bsky.social•6 days ago

Imagine a world where David Lee Roth never existed.

oldmanant.bsky.social•6 days ago

This is all medium key kind of Nirvana's fault.

inherentcharlie.bsky.social•6 days ago

True, alas

mjaum.bsky.social•6 days ago

“Cringe” is one of those words saying far more about the person using it than the person it is aimed at.
One does feel this ought to have been obvious to more people sooner…

pbastronaut.bsky.social•5 days ago

What if I only produce absolutely dogshit stuff that I'm afraid is cringe?

themountaingoats.bsky.social•5 days ago

if you want an honest answer — 1st step is to quit talking about your stuff like that. Being self critical is good, but differentiating between critical & cruel is important. Cringe isn’t a useful critical framework. It’s a defense mechanism and the sooner one can grow out of it the better

aaronofypsi.bsky.social•6 days ago

I keep saying, cool is just cringe which has been fully transmuted in the fires of our own hearts.

teikae.bsky.social•6 days ago

I hate showing off most of my work because I never feel like it's good compared to the amazing artists and writers out there who are much younger than me. It's only lately that I've started forcing myself to show it off.

maskedpiss.bsky.social•6 days ago

i got over my fear of cringe many years ago. now the issue is that the stuff i am hired to make is not the stuff i Want to make

sockpuppetpundit.bsky.social•6 days ago

I’m leaning into cringe… at least on Bluesky. It’s my safe space.

typingloudly.zip•6 days ago

i'm trying to write the cringiest thing i can

luigithirty.bsky.social•6 days ago

I gave up on cringe when I got my nier tattoo and now I have many cool video game and rpg things

malcolm.redbirdmenace.com•6 days ago

Cringe Nier tattoo solidarity here

rhetoricalreader.bsky.social•6 days ago

Honestly, I've given up creating because I don't want anything I make to be fed into plagiarism machines. Fucking gen ai bullshit.

lemonbones.bsky.social•6 days ago

I have noped out of many an online community because making fun of ‘cringe’ became a popular sport and I despise bullying.

Been online since the 90’s. It was never a problem until 2015 or so. I’ve seen many talents vanish, or sanitize/disney-fy their work. I’m still bitter about it.

lateration.bsky.social•6 days ago

the outside of outsider art. the folks of folk art.

minawoods.bsky.social•6 days ago

For me its not fear of cringe. Its fear of being bad at everything I try and do.

Also, your music has really helped me through a lot of dark times. So thanks for that. <3

mauserfrau.bsky.social•6 days ago

I've been awful at 90% of what I've tried to do in my life. I regret trying close to 0%. Small regret for an incidental burn I got trying to make a jeweled eyeball sculpture.

roundthewheel.bsky.social•6 days ago

You should also abandon that. You will be bad at most if not all things you try the first time. You must do a thing repeatedly to improve at it. And even if you never do, it's okay to do it if it's fun and brings you joy

beelzethegoat.bsky.social•6 days ago

What's cringe to some is cinema to others.

keysmashing.bsky.social•6 days ago

I'm not afraid of cringe, but I am afraid of criticism, cyberviolence, casual disdain and apathy from friends and loved ones, ostracisation, and am incapable of genuine interaction or expression under the background coercion of social pressures

ladyfellhorn.bsky.social•6 days ago

Relatable 😔

keysmashing.bsky.social•6 days ago

Nobody will see any of the work I make, if I ever finish it, because I don't have the canny wittiness to create successful viral social media posts, nor any sort of community or network to support me, and no professional connections to access success. Who cares if it's cringe or not

luvina.bsky.social•6 days ago

I mean you don’t need any of those things. The old fashioned way of writing and finishing a thing and then finding a home for it or an agency for it still works.

panicrestaurant.bsky.social•6 days ago

I believe with complete sincerity that the weaponization of secondhand embarrassment has done untold damage to humanity

runehog.bsky.social•6 days ago

weaponized allism

teamskeet.bsky.social•6 days ago

galdente.bsky.social•6 days ago

This is the primary reason I can’t do anything creative. That big ball of shame starts welling up and it’s like, oh, nevermind

vagabondvivant.com•6 days ago

The hardest thing about performing, especially acting but I'm sure with all forms, is getting over feeling like you look like an asshole.

This era of social media superficiality and emphasis on not being cringe is gonna rob us of so many talented people we'll never discover.

vagabondvivant.com•6 days ago

We need to bring back the era of Star Wars Kid and Chocolate Rain and not giving a fuck about the haters.

ladyfellhorn.bsky.social•6 days ago

Chocolate Rain was kinda good and I'll die on that hill

vagabondvivant.com•6 days ago

Chocolate rain was hella good. It was a hit. Tay Zonday is a treasure. But I'd bet a million dollars that if he'd put that out today, he'd have been mocked off of the Internet.

Social media brought worldwide reach to too many people who don't deserve it.

ladyfellhorn.bsky.social•6 days ago

Agreed. He actually has talent.

hudsonnash.bsky.social•6 days ago

Tragic

Fear, the mind killer.

elroycraich.bsky.social•6 days ago

i suffered a lot from this and it breaks my heart for young creators being raised in essentially a terrarium of hate and irony. we have lost uncounted botticellis, a million Mary Olivers, to the age of irony, and we must consign it to the past, like ages of Goldy or Bronzy

lessmarberry.bsky.social•6 days ago

The best lack all [not caring about cringe], while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity

bfj-mb.bsky.social•6 days ago

I know well a cohort of 2010s Fine Arts graduates that have all but abandoned creating art, at least for public consumption. Only the least sensitive/introverted have carried on. It's the withering gaze of the philistine hordes of social media & the brazen self-promotion of untrained art mongerers.

bfj-mb.bsky.social•6 days ago

Far from being art "snobs", they simply don't have a basis for a dialogue with a culture dominated by cynicism, commercialism and devaluation of knowledge & expertise. The hostility toward and alienation of those with an artistic core forces them to retreat into safer harbours, or abandoning it all.

katmctee.bsky.social•6 days ago

Meanwhile Jack White.

ztiworoh.bsky.social•6 days ago

I was watching David Byrne on the SNL concert thing that aired this weekend and thinking about how lucky we are that he never seemed to worry if what he was doing looked strange or goofy.

hereticerik.com•5 days ago

Yeah I don't share most of my art or projects for that very reason.

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