Every single day, things happen to remind us that there are a lot of terrible things out there. Atrocities happen in the world, and people commit awful acts that lead us to believe that almost no-one can be trusted. Also, there are countless individuals out there who will go out of their way to embarrass themselves, online and offline. 

With so much badness everywhere, we have two options: we can stay in hopeless denial, or we can reluctantly embrace it. With the unstoppable machine that is cringe, we choose the latter option. If seemingly everyone around us insists on acting like this, we may as well stand by and watch. It’s almost beautiful, in a kind of wince-worthy way. Cringe is a side of human nature that is accessible to all of us, and is often so painful because of its relatability. In a way, we can’t help but keep on looking.