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Be cringe


"That's cringe."

That's how many of our oh-so-ironic fellow-citizens say ad nauseam on social media, for everything from dad jokes to being a fan of something. "That's cringe." It's cringe to be enthusiastic. It's cringe to be committed. It's cringe to be active and engaged. As such, you show yourself to not grok life's ultimately meaninglessness. You're cringe.

And, of course, that extends to politics.

Of course, it wasn't "cringe" to go on and on about Birdie Sanders. But it's cringe to be supportive of either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. It's cringe to care about the country's future. It's cringe to give a damn about someone beside yourself.

These tweets perfectly encapsulate the online gestalt:
If today's online Left were to be transported to Edmund Pettis Bridge in 1963, they would most likely roll their eyes and reach for their phone to post laughing emojis on Twitter.

Of course, that's the thing. Social media trades in disaffection and cynicism. Those are its currencies. Doing so is what gets you the likes and the responses. You get the attention for which you are starved. 

James Clyburn didn't have social media when he was being abused by police. Cesar Chavez didn't have Facebook through which he could organize the farmworkers. Activists of bygone days had to meet people, face-to-face, persuade them, inspire them. They had to move heaven and earth. They had to be present at that moment, knowing that their actions mattered and would be decisive.

What do we have now? We have an entire made-up industry of "influencers". And when your livelihood depends on displaying a certain persona, a certain world-weary disinterest, then that's what you will do. Or when your livelihood depends on you being angry at everything all the time, and never once providing an idea for solutions, then that's what you play to. Rather than leading their followers, influencers follow their audiences, and act accordingly.

If caring about democracy is cringe, then I'm cringe. If wanting the best for people is cringe, then I'm cringe. If fighting for justice is cringe, then count me in. Decency, respect, even love are all cringe. 

In my youth I was much like those who look at everything with a smarmy irony. As I grew older I changed. And then the pandemic came. After that nothing was the same for me. I am not the same person now that I was in 2019. Cynicism and irony are cheap and unfulfilling substitutes for wisdom and grace. The likes of Jon Stewart and Bill Maher will be quickly forgotten once they pass through this life. They will leave behind no accomplishments of note. Maureen Dowd's columns will linger on unremarked and unread. Because the people who think facetiousness is its own reward will never change this world. They will not affect it in any positive way. They are leeches on our communal body, parasites sucking it dry. And that's no way to live.

So, be cringe. Care. Love. Fight. Laugh. Cry. These all make us fully human. And these all make us ready to move mountains.

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