a lot of the stuff people cringe about is fine and does not need changing. beating yourself up a little to grow past your flaws and mistakes might be good, but they gotta be actual flaws and mistakes

except that this isn’t about the emotion of cringe but about cringe culture, the general notion that it’s a-ok to make fun of individuals and/or subgroups for behavior that makes you cringe.
maybe you’re too old or too young or just lucky enough to have missed it but there was a time where unironic “cringe compilations” were a thing. people got harrased, doxed, and genuinely harmed because of it.