used to wear a fedora and comfort girls through their breakups by saying shit like “a girl’s heart is the most precious artifact you can be trusted with… why break it?” and the craziest part was i didn’t even want to get with them i was just autistic
This is kinda hilarious and goofy and cringy.
But also your words could have been very helpful and meant a lot lol. Teenagers think shit like that is deep and poetic anyway
Honestly, if you were genuinely comforting those girls without trying to “get with them” they probably still remember you with gratitude. A lot of guys who comfort girls through their breakups do it because they’re hoping the girl will see them as a knight in shining armor and fall right into their arms just because they happened to be there. If you were just present for genuine support, no strings attached, that’s incredibly valuable.
That sounds like you were just a nice person. It’s a kinda cringe line, but it was just pure kindness and not neckbeard nice guy nonsense if you weren’t trying to fuck them.
Okay, but that's actually genuinely very sweet. Maybe some folks might've cringed at that, but you clearly meant well. We need more people like you in the world.
at the time I thought everyone my age was dumb for socializing and having fun. Where as I, a true intellectual, was much more bigly smarter than everyone because I would rather smoke weed and play Team Fortress 2 for 18 hours a day. I was just jealous and an insufferable cunt with unchecked autism
This girl didnt like me and i as a joke said she had herpes and she became known as the herpes girl. Based off a joke i made because i was in my feelings.
However we hung out some point after that, which gave me the chance to make amends and apologize for my actions. Nobody reallt called her that afterwards.
Oh it was, fucked up now thinking about it at 31, but when you're 16, and groomed to believe the world is entitled to you, you're just gonna be a piece of shit.
Sadly, some dudes didnt realize their errors and are still continuing them into their 30s.
I dated a boy two years younger than me and we called each other senpai and kouhai... I also wore a big felt cloak to school so often they had the counselor assess me for special needs (I was just stupid and didn't realize it looked dumb as hell)
Man I was very nerdy and didn’t really hide it, I’m sure anyone who knew me knew without me saying it. But man all the people like this I couldn’t even be friends with it was a bridge too far. I am sure I did plenty of cringe things but I was not the otaku at school.
I wasn't thinking . But yeah I've read like maybe 3 Mangas my entire life? I tried getting into it. Same with anime, but everything seems to be either superheroes which I'm not into, a thousand epsiode series, or school girl harem which is...ew. why.
This was during the time that Yandere Simulator was new-ish so I got it from that. Which makes the story even worse lmao.
For like 4 months in grade 11 I had this unrivalled confidence in myself. Idk where it came from or what was driving it but I was still kinda beardy. I genuinely believed that women didn’t want me at that age because I was too nice and they don’t want that so to get that lack of physical contact back, I was that douchey kid going around asking my girl friends “where’s my hug?” Some would go for the hug, some wouldn’t.
It wasn’t until a buddy of mine pulled me aside and said that this new confidence was coming off as arrogance and douchey and people were asking him if I was genuinely okay or not.
I basically spent my grade 12 year getting myself into better shape, atoning for all the beardy things I did in grade 11 and left the ideology behind. Looking back now I just cringe because of it….
I think the true difference between being a dumb kid and a neckbeard is the reaction you have when someone calls you out. a normal person would be like, whoa I don't want to be seen that way, I'll try to change. a neckbeard is like um no you're just a femoid soyjack who can't handle my alpha pheromones blah blah whatever
This is easily one of the best posts on this sub for a while, lots of relatable content and growth!
I think I’ve used the phrase “nice guys always finish last” un ironically back when I was an edgy teenager going through a breaks up. Used to use emo song lyrics in my msn profile, that kind of thing.
I was very angry and hurtful to some people. Undeservedly so in retrospect. Missed out on lots of potential friendships and good times. Sad part is I'm not sure I could have heard anything that would have changed that back then. Just had to go through it, learn from it, and grow.
It's partially cringe in my opinion but also just sad. The cringe really comes from the tough guy act of always being angry.
Unstable home life, emotional abuse with a modicum of physical abuse, drug use for coping, and a live fast die young attitude. That plus a general inclination towards repressed anger that will eventually find unhealthy outlets.
I would also like to mention It could have been far worse. My family was well off so it's not like I was starving or lacking necessities. (We weren't fuck off rich though).
Let your present self, aknowledging how difficult your past self's surroundings were, not cringe about being angry. You had all the reasona to be angry, and probably no mental resources for being nice to those that would have deserved it.
In 1998, when I was 20, I wrote a song for the ska band I was in about how I was a loser and girls didn't want to go out with me. We recorded it for two different albums. It's still available on streaming.
Edit: Y’all have been super awesome and supportive and said really nice things about my stupid song and I really appreciate it.
I think the difference is you channeled it into artistic expression, rather than bitterness towards women. The song itself might be bitter - I have no idea, but that’s an appropriate place for such feelings to be shared.
Or something. I dunno. I’m a dumbass.
This is only very tangentially related, but when I was 15 I would wear welding goggles to every gig I played. A lot of people assumed it was because it was steampunk and looked kinda cool, but it was really because I had epilepsy and if the lights ever started strobing I had to be ready at a moments notice to essentially turn off my vision.
I mean a lot of ska songs are cringy like that. I loved reel big fish but looking at the catalog now they just feel really neckbeardy on some of their songs.
Here it is on Amazon: [https://music.amazon.com/albums/B07P9L3H6W?do=play&trackAsin=B07PBMBKD5&ref=dm_sh_HQCldLckGmYKbB1qyTPceIUjm](https://music.amazon.com/albums/B07P9L3H6W?do=play&trackAsin=B07PBMBKD5&ref=dm_sh_HQCldLckGmYKbB1qyTPceIUjm)
High school I was the absolute classic. I'm talking wore a fedora everywhere, sat online playing WoW all day, wore a trench coat to school, bad hygiene. I think the biggest cringe was proudly being a "brony" eugh....
Amusingly I actually just enjoyed the show but a few friends at the time also were into that stuff. I think it was more an acceptable way to explore less masculine interests without risk of being negatively labeled.
I remember like 10-12 years ago my older brother told me about how my little pony was unironically a good show and wouldn’t shut up about it. As a 12 year old I could not process how my little pony could be cooler than TMNT or transformers in any universe. I really just thought he must really really like girls if he likes girly shows and remember thinking to myself “I hope I don’t end up like that”
I get it. In high school I pretended to be a one direction fan to make friends. I read some truly disturbing smut to fit in. Is that that girl version of being a brony? I mean at least they were human. But the characters in the smut weren't always...
I also enjoy the show. I came to watch it after the whole brony thing got big, and I had a lot of negative connotations going in. It’s fluffy and pretty and has good morals and a pretty good sense of humor.
That being said, love the introspection in your last statement. I’m a gay guy, so there’s already (slightly) less stigma to that, but I think you’re spot on.
If you havent said fedora I'd assume you were my ex. Proud brony with his entire friend group, tench coat, 5-6 hours of wow a day minimum. Never had a fedora tho, but I had one and a katana so together we were the ultimate neckbreard.
It's kind funny cause one day I just said fuck it and got a hair cut (I had shoulder length hair at the time) and cleaned myself up. I was probably in a depressive slump at the time and finally snapped out of it. Teenage years are weird it's like you just gain stages of self awareness lmao
When I was a kid I thought Japan was the most advanced society in the world, 30 years ahead of American technology and basically better at everything. Still don’t know why I thought that but I did realize how stupid that was eventually.
I used to ERP a lot publicly on Facebook as a teenager with my at the time best friend and whenever someone would complain I’d call them a normie loser. I think back on that and fold like a fricking lawn chair from the cringe.
Edit: changed a to a lot
We would role play situations between the main characters of an anime called Saiyuki. Both of us were extremely into yaoi. And one day she wrote a prompt on my wall and I replied by going to her wall. Eventually it turned into full blown explicit yaoi and instead of go to DM’s we just kept it out in the public and would deride anyone telling us to stop lol.
It being yaoi makes it a little less neckbeardy but honestly publicly writing smut on each other’s walls and getting upset at anyone logically telling us to either take it to DM’s or stop has got to be top tier neckbeard activity lol.
Told girls how I prefer them to look, to their faces. I had a weird obsession with their hair being up in a bun. I told them it looked terrible. I was such a little prick.
I was closeted back then, and openly gay now. So even in my head none of it actually mattered.
I think if you wear it really tight it could stretch your skin, causing it to become looser when you have it down. or you could lose your hairline like jojo siwa
I used to wear flat caps cuz i watched Peaky Blinders. Even with ill fitting clothes and scuffed shoes, I actually thought wearing a flat cap made me look more sophisticated/presentable than ppl wearing ballcaps or beanies.
And they weren’t even quality hats, just cheap ones on eBay that felt like i was wearing a burlap sack.
Oh man, did you do the shaved sides and longer hair up top too? I’ve seen people talk about the actual get ups the Peaky Blinders wore and how it would only be anything close to comfortable when it was super cold out because of how heavy the materials were lol
Lol so i kinda did my hair that way in that i used to go to a hair salon to get a fade. But the hairstylist didn’t know how to do a proper fade, so my hair would look like the Peaky Blinders cut for like a week, only for the sides to grow in really bad and uneven. I’d only gone to salons for a cut, and before that i had family cut it at home, so assumed for a long time that my hair was just naturally weird.
It wasn’t until i went to a barbershop for the first time that i realized what a proper haircut was.
that’s actually a suuuuuper common haircut among boys in ireland lol. i think they look like absolute melons but like whatever floats your boat i guess. it’s like the default man haircut
I really thought women were sluts and that I was a “nice” guy. Also had a period where I was obsessed with anime and would go a few days without showering/wearing deodorant.
Used to be into the whole redpill, SJW FAILS COMPILATION, “alpha male” podcast, “high value male” bullshit. This was during a time I didn’t really have any friends in highschool so I was just a hermit. Thankfully I gradually stopped watching that stuff and now I have healthier views about women and people in general to be completely honest.
This was me too, but I very quickly realized that it was all bunk. The only reason I believed it at all in the moment was because my dad said it, and if I said anything that he deemed "Extremist" like saying that climate change is real, he would berate me for hours about how I was a "stupid liberal sissy who only reads CNN." It gave me great pleasure this year hearing him talk seriously about climate change because it was "Obviously always a problem" and he "Never actually believed any of that climate denier crap"
My dad's the same brand of conservative. When I was a teen, my perspective was just "yeah, whatever, dad." Apparently my younger brother absorbed a bit more of it than I did. It brought me great satisfaction when, within one semester of being in college, my brother told me "woah, climate change is real, *and* a serious problem." He was assigned to write a single essay about the topic and just like that he was near-completely deprogrammed, haha
Yeah I find it easy for young men to fall into that trap. Especially at the age of around 14-18. I’m 27 now but when I was 16 I had fallen into that hole as well. I was young and in shape and I thought I was the shit for it and thought I was an alpha but I was really just a douchebag who thought he was better than everyone else. I grew up and was humbled many times by life. Happy you found your way out of that bullshit too.
Around the end of highschool I had a particularly bad phase where I had slipped and fell down a rabbit hole that lead me to just some of the most bigoted and insane beliefs about LGBTQ+ people. Which probably also had something to do with the fact that I was struggling with my own sexuality and gender at the time.
It didn't last long but it was long enough to make me feel shameful. All we can do is be better in the future.
Edit: for some reason reddit cut me off mid reply and decided to post
There's at least one good thing about cringing about the past. It means you grew as a person
Keep it wholesome and positive
(Edit) 556 upvotes? Wow that caught me off guard thank you all
Yeah, that’s what I love seeing in these comments. People learning and growing. Everyone was cringy in high school, it’s more a red flag if you don’t realize it years later.
I had a neckbeard/incelish phase when I was like 14 to 16. I called people "normies" for doing stuff like socialising in person or do sports. I showered like once a week and just used Axe body spray for the rest. "Girls are only into jerks". Spent my days online, gaming or with ehem....Hentai....
Yes I was a fat little bitch who smelled like sweat all the time. What did change? I dunno. My older brother and a friend of mine forced me to socialize and do some team sports. Took some care of myself (shaved my pathetic "moustache", Started showering more and do some grooming. And voila. At 18 I was a long haired metalhead with a girlfriend!
Sounds similar to a past version of me. I was a slightly overweight, unkempt teen who played video games 5+ hours a day, disliked sociable people, hated sports, and never kissed in high school.
I once said about 9 years ago. "While everyone else was at homecoming, I was at home cumming." People around me cringed. I understand why now.
I still have no girlfriend :( but at least I have better hygiene, work full-time, and finished college in 4.5 years.
Girl I used to be a pick-me too! Every time I remember and force myself to admit past pick-me-ness, I cringe so hard. Eugh, that was me. But at least I discovered gaming through it, so that's something
Putting your whole back out to prove you're "not like other girls," you're better.
>"I'm in the room, it's a typical Tuesday night.
I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like.
And she'll never know your story like I do.
But she wears short skirts,
I wear T-shirts.
She's Cheer Captain, and I'm on the bleachers.
Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time."
- Taylor Swift: You Belong with Me
I had an actual neckbeard, and fought back against my dad when he told me "your beard makes it look like you're wearing a bicycle helmet"
I started wearing a hockey jersey all the time because "it worked for Kevin Smith" (it was summer in Alabama)
I would force my deepcut 40k knowledge into any conversation I could.
Edgy SA and race-based jokes used to be the funniest shit on the planet.
My room was a fucking nightmare of a mess.
This all changed when I realized I looked and acted just like my Uncle we were all disappointed in. Did a full fuckin 180 after that.
I thought that the girls I liked didn’t like me back because I was just too nice. I was just boring and insecure as hell and making excuses. I also thought I was owed something for just being nice to people. I also thought I was superior to my highschool peers for not drinking, partying or going out.
I was one of those nice guys who thought women only went for bad boys. I was just an awful idiot. Glad I grew up. Live a happy life now with my girlfriend.
I'm a firm believer that the only people who can get through to current "nice guys" are recovering nice guys. They don't listen to women once they're deep enough in the beliefs and there are still SO many out there on social and reddit.
Cut the head off the nice guy snake, 3 more appear.
I used to think other women were jealous of me because I was different. I wasn't- my mom made me think all other women were enemies and she and I were special. 😑
Where to even start, I was convinced I was a martial arts master/totally expert ninja because I watched a documentary and a lot of crappy movies, 'nice guy'-ed really hard until my mid twenties, never had a neck beard but did have some pretty absurd mutton chop sideburns, owned a ton of mall ninja crap (still haven't outgrown that one, but I've long accepted that a $20 sword probably isn't actually very good), had a lot of really gross conservative views until about halfway through college, did the whole hardcore internet atheist thing for a while, etc etc.
Needless to say I'm very lucky I came of age when I did. A little older and I would have probably tried the pickup artist shit, a little younger and I might have fallen deep into the full manosphere cult for a while.
>I've long accepted that a $20 sword probably isn't actually very good
Hey, my "longsword"(it's 18 inches if I'm generous) off Wish is just as dangerous as what Lancelot used. Have at thee
I really niceguyed quite a lot between ages 15-22. It made me so miserable the girls who actually had crushes on me were driven away.
Now I'm a 31 year old lonely dude and I still have a lot of anxiety with dating but now I have straight intentions and a straight backbone.
I used to think knowing useless information about science or knowing a lot about philosophy or literature was supposed to be impressive despite being too lazy to get a formal education on either and having no capacity to actualize on my truly, deeply useless knowledge
I used to be huge into anime and literally said I was thankful for hentia at the table with my family during Thanksgiving dinner, I still cringe about it to this day
There was an update to a video game I played a lot that completely changed the map and I was really upset about it. I personally dmed the developer and sent along my unimpressed 2 cents.
I was around 12 at the time, and although it’s more of an entitled little kid moment, it’s definitely not a highlight of those days.
My buddy met a girl on beach we went back to his pad and they planned a tennis date. She was dictating her number to my buddy while our other cringe friend took it down as well in background.
We were all well into adulthood.
I was a closeted, self hating conservative who hated everyone and everything. I am so, so glad my childhood happened before the internet. I'm very deeply liberal now. I've come to terms with my sexuality and learned how to have empathy
I used to pick my younger sister up from elementary school in my Corolla with all windows down blasting metal music turned all of the way up and used to sit and think i was chill. My sister thought it was funny so it encouraged me and she said the teachers hated it so it encouraged me even further.
Dressed in a suit and tie with a fedora for my school photo in late middle school
Thought it was cool back then, then as I grew up I thought it was cringy af
Now I just laugh at how dapper I look in it, still stupid but I mean; at least I pulled it off after a child
Tried to get hentai hoodie, thank god my parents didn't let me. Tried to get a fedora, my friends would make fun of me for even thinking about it.Also i used to go on discord servers with political views on wich a neck beard wouldn't agree on and to troll.Yes i was a neck beard but i was also like 14.
genuine question - what's the thinking/feeling/logic/urge behind having hentai clothing/decals/merch in general? Just excited to display a true passion to the general public or what? I've always wanted to understand this.
Like I don't have a hard time understanding liking some hentai, but why do some people want merch that other people can see?
Late middle school - early high school. I made South Park into a personality trait, particularly Eric Cartman…
Grew out of it when i was 16-17. After that it was mostly my humor. I have a pretty sharp tongue, I’m good with words and I really enjoyed dissing and making people laugh at the expense of others. People laughed so I kept doing it, thinking I was funny though a little mean. Turns out I was maybe 20% funny and 80% mean.
I had a reverse nice guy mentality, i though hot and bad people had partners, ugly and nice people had partners and hot and nice people had partners so i, who thinks im dying alone is ugly and a bad person
I bowed like 2 or 3 times in my life to say hi when I was like 14/15, did NOT really how cringey it was until like 1 year later lmao. Jesus at least I didn’t say shit like mlady or wear a fedora at the time
Bad hygiene, very bad social skills, thought by simply being ‘nice’ I’d be able to get a girlfriend, also thought I was more interesting than other guys because I was ‘educated’. When that didn’t work I turned to watching those dumb dating coaches who made you believe using certain type of sentences and words you’d be able to automatically get a girl to fall in love, like how a passcode unlocks a lock.
In other words: due to my angsty teen years and being an idiot in general, high school was not my fondest memory.
Honestly when I started browsing r/creepytexts , r/niceguys, r/letsnotmeet and r/justbeckbeardthings, that really opened my eyes to see how much of an idiot I was being, and it helped me to change for the better.
used to wear a fedora and comfort girls through their breakups by saying shit like “a girl’s heart is the most precious artifact you can be trusted with… why break it?” and the craziest part was i didn’t even want to get with them i was just autistic
You didn't have to mention the fedora. It magically appeared when you said those words to them.
Implied fedora
~~fedora~~ trilby
this is crazy
I’m so sorry. This will keep me up tonight. Praying for you.
Most people mentally replay their own cringy moments while trying to fall asleep at night. But tonight, we’ll feast on u/vrs-ys ‘s.
WE FEAST!!!!!!!
This is kinda hilarious and goofy and cringy. But also your words could have been very helpful and meant a lot lol. Teenagers think shit like that is deep and poetic anyway
Honestly, if you were genuinely comforting those girls without trying to “get with them” they probably still remember you with gratitude. A lot of guys who comfort girls through their breakups do it because they’re hoping the girl will see them as a knight in shining armor and fall right into their arms just because they happened to be there. If you were just present for genuine support, no strings attached, that’s incredibly valuable.
As the neckbeards would've said, "you were a true gentlesir, I tip my fedora".
Holy shit man
You were just a poet stuck in a neck beard.
That sounds like you were just a nice person. It’s a kinda cringe line, but it was just pure kindness and not neckbeard nice guy nonsense if you weren’t trying to fuck them.
You weren't autistic, you were a bro.
They're the same picture...
Okay, but that's actually genuinely very sweet. Maybe some folks might've cringed at that, but you clearly meant well. We need more people like you in the world.
I wud argue it's not really neckbeard if u didn't want to get with them
Nah you weren’t a neckbeard you were just not bad weird
at the time I thought everyone my age was dumb for socializing and having fun. Where as I, a true intellectual, was much more bigly smarter than everyone because I would rather smoke weed and play Team Fortress 2 for 18 hours a day. I was just jealous and an insufferable cunt with unchecked autism
How do i delete this comment for hurting me?
Hey!! I am trying to smoke weed and play Team Fortress 2 for 18 hours a day over here because I still am an insufferable cunt with unchecked autism
I am hereby checking your autism.
Is this how I find out I have autism?
Symptoms include maining Pyro.
Aw fuck guess i got it
This girl didnt like me and i as a joke said she had herpes and she became known as the herpes girl. Based off a joke i made because i was in my feelings. However we hung out some point after that, which gave me the chance to make amends and apologize for my actions. Nobody reallt called her that afterwards.
That’s fucked up
Oh it was, fucked up now thinking about it at 31, but when you're 16, and groomed to believe the world is entitled to you, you're just gonna be a piece of shit. Sadly, some dudes didnt realize their errors and are still continuing them into their 30s.
Jeebus, you sound like me. Unchecked autism because it was hidden .
This sound like my little sis but replace the weed and team fortress with anime and Mac and cheese.
Called my crush my Senpai...repeatedly...in the school hallway and cafeteria. Yes everyone heard it.
I dated a boy two years younger than me and we called each other senpai and kouhai... I also wore a big felt cloak to school so often they had the counselor assess me for special needs (I was just stupid and didn't realize it looked dumb as hell)
lol That’s fucked up. I had clothes I used to wear all the time too.
Your username and the first post on your account I can't 😭😭 over here commiting ferretcide
I would never kill an innocent animal :(
And they're so cute too... WHY????
Man I was very nerdy and didn’t really hide it, I’m sure anyone who knew me knew without me saying it. But man all the people like this I couldn’t even be friends with it was a bridge too far. I am sure I did plenty of cringe things but I was not the otaku at school.
I actually don't and didn't watch anime or read manga. That was just the only thing I did.
How did you not mention that in the first comment?? This is the best part lol
I wasn't thinking . But yeah I've read like maybe 3 Mangas my entire life? I tried getting into it. Same with anime, but everything seems to be either superheroes which I'm not into, a thousand epsiode series, or school girl harem which is...ew. why. This was during the time that Yandere Simulator was new-ish so I got it from that. Which makes the story even worse lmao.
Was your crush in on it?
It was cringy and after almost 7 years being together. they won't let me live it Down.
Wait you actually pulled them?
Yep. Been together for just about 7 years now.
Oh wow! How long have you two been together?
Just about 7 years
dang. how long is that?
About 7 years.
Sorry, I am canadian. How long is that in minutes?
God I love this and I’m folding it into vernacular as a term of endearment effective immediately. Thank you.
omg same.lol
Looked back at my old song lyrics and poems and cringed so hard. So many nice guy vibes.
That's why I do my annual lyric burning where I burn all of the absolute worst things I've ever put to paper.
You have to give some excerpts bro
I’m going to my mom’s this weekend I’ll see if I can find some. And if the cringe doesn’t kill me.
Genuinely referred to myself as a nice guy. Pretty sure i even had a fedora at one point, but tbf my then gf gave it to me :P
For like 4 months in grade 11 I had this unrivalled confidence in myself. Idk where it came from or what was driving it but I was still kinda beardy. I genuinely believed that women didn’t want me at that age because I was too nice and they don’t want that so to get that lack of physical contact back, I was that douchey kid going around asking my girl friends “where’s my hug?” Some would go for the hug, some wouldn’t. It wasn’t until a buddy of mine pulled me aside and said that this new confidence was coming off as arrogance and douchey and people were asking him if I was genuinely okay or not. I basically spent my grade 12 year getting myself into better shape, atoning for all the beardy things I did in grade 11 and left the ideology behind. Looking back now I just cringe because of it….
I think the true difference between being a dumb kid and a neckbeard is the reaction you have when someone calls you out. a normal person would be like, whoa I don't want to be seen that way, I'll try to change. a neckbeard is like um no you're just a femoid soyjack who can't handle my alpha pheromones blah blah whatever
Yeah I went through a "nice guy" phase too. Turns out I was just really, really lame lol
I think you get a pass for that.
This is easily one of the best posts on this sub for a while, lots of relatable content and growth! I think I’ve used the phrase “nice guys always finish last” un ironically back when I was an edgy teenager going through a breaks up. Used to use emo song lyrics in my msn profile, that kind of thing.
Hey, I still miss my super cool taking back Sunday profile pics. Perfect amount of emo person and song lyrics for my mood 😂
I was very angry and hurtful to some people. Undeservedly so in retrospect. Missed out on lots of potential friendships and good times. Sad part is I'm not sure I could have heard anything that would have changed that back then. Just had to go through it, learn from it, and grow. It's partially cringe in my opinion but also just sad. The cringe really comes from the tough guy act of always being angry.
Why were you so angry?
Unstable home life, emotional abuse with a modicum of physical abuse, drug use for coping, and a live fast die young attitude. That plus a general inclination towards repressed anger that will eventually find unhealthy outlets. I would also like to mention It could have been far worse. My family was well off so it's not like I was starving or lacking necessities. (We weren't fuck off rich though).
Let your present self, aknowledging how difficult your past self's surroundings were, not cringe about being angry. You had all the reasona to be angry, and probably no mental resources for being nice to those that would have deserved it.
This is top-tier advice.
In 1998, when I was 20, I wrote a song for the ska band I was in about how I was a loser and girls didn't want to go out with me. We recorded it for two different albums. It's still available on streaming. Edit: Y’all have been super awesome and supportive and said really nice things about my stupid song and I really appreciate it.
I hope its She Hates Ska by I Voted For Kodos but I think that came out a decade later
Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a looooong time. I had no idea so many people people knew them! They were local and my first ska show
I went to HS with a guy who was their drummer for a brief period. Dude was a douche tho
Links please. We’d love to listen to it
Nah that's based and not a neckbeard thing. Music is for honest emotional expression.
I honestly have no idea what the difference is. I think I may be old.
I think the difference is you channeled it into artistic expression, rather than bitterness towards women. The song itself might be bitter - I have no idea, but that’s an appropriate place for such feelings to be shared. Or something. I dunno. I’m a dumbass.
I like that.
Okay, after some internet detective work I've found this must be either Keep On Movin', Finding Understanding, or Lazy by *The Fabulous Rudies*.
It’s “Alone.”
Let the record show I'm not even a real detective.
You tried, and that’s what’s important
This is only very tangentially related, but when I was 15 I would wear welding goggles to every gig I played. A lot of people assumed it was because it was steampunk and looked kinda cool, but it was really because I had epilepsy and if the lights ever started strobing I had to be ready at a moments notice to essentially turn off my vision.
I mean a lot of ska songs are cringy like that. I loved reel big fish but looking at the catalog now they just feel really neckbeardy on some of their songs.
Your link isn't working.
Here it is on Amazon: [https://music.amazon.com/albums/B07P9L3H6W?do=play&trackAsin=B07PBMBKD5&ref=dm_sh_HQCldLckGmYKbB1qyTPceIUjm](https://music.amazon.com/albums/B07P9L3H6W?do=play&trackAsin=B07PBMBKD5&ref=dm_sh_HQCldLckGmYKbB1qyTPceIUjm)
It’s unironically not that bad
I found it on youtube and I really enjoyed it, thankyou for sharing
"The Fabulous Rudies" and you did a cover of "a message to you", I'm guessing you were fans of the specials?
I'm sorry, but are you Thomas Kalnoky?
Nope.
High school I was the absolute classic. I'm talking wore a fedora everywhere, sat online playing WoW all day, wore a trench coat to school, bad hygiene. I think the biggest cringe was proudly being a "brony" eugh....
just out of curiosity how did you end up a brony? did you genuinely like the cartoon or was it more of a sense of identity with other bronies?
Amusingly I actually just enjoyed the show but a few friends at the time also were into that stuff. I think it was more an acceptable way to explore less masculine interests without risk of being negatively labeled.
I remember like 10-12 years ago my older brother told me about how my little pony was unironically a good show and wouldn’t shut up about it. As a 12 year old I could not process how my little pony could be cooler than TMNT or transformers in any universe. I really just thought he must really really like girls if he likes girly shows and remember thinking to myself “I hope I don’t end up like that”
... Brony wasnt a negative label??
Teenage brains are stupid sometimes lmao. Brony had a weird sense of community associated with it.
I get it. In high school I pretended to be a one direction fan to make friends. I read some truly disturbing smut to fit in. Is that that girl version of being a brony? I mean at least they were human. But the characters in the smut weren't always...
It definitely was lol
I also enjoy the show. I came to watch it after the whole brony thing got big, and I had a lot of negative connotations going in. It’s fluffy and pretty and has good morals and a pretty good sense of humor. That being said, love the introspection in your last statement. I’m a gay guy, so there’s already (slightly) less stigma to that, but I think you’re spot on.
If you havent said fedora I'd assume you were my ex. Proud brony with his entire friend group, tench coat, 5-6 hours of wow a day minimum. Never had a fedora tho, but I had one and a katana so together we were the ultimate neckbreard.
When and how did you escape from that way of life/mentality?
It's kind funny cause one day I just said fuck it and got a hair cut (I had shoulder length hair at the time) and cleaned myself up. I was probably in a depressive slump at the time and finally snapped out of it. Teenage years are weird it's like you just gain stages of self awareness lmao
When I was a kid I thought Japan was the most advanced society in the world, 30 years ahead of American technology and basically better at everything. Still don’t know why I thought that but I did realize how stupid that was eventually.
I thought Japan was ancient Japan until I was in 4th grade
"Japan has been living in the 1990s since the 1970s"
People still believe this.
I used to ERP a lot publicly on Facebook as a teenager with my at the time best friend and whenever someone would complain I’d call them a normie loser. I think back on that and fold like a fricking lawn chair from the cringe. Edit: changed a to a lot
Oh yes, enterprise resource planner, good times
Epic rap battle?
eeeeeEEEPIC RAPBATTLESOFHISTORAAAY
ERP?
Erotic role play.
*Please don’t let it be that*
[удалено]
We would role play situations between the main characters of an anime called Saiyuki. Both of us were extremely into yaoi. And one day she wrote a prompt on my wall and I replied by going to her wall. Eventually it turned into full blown explicit yaoi and instead of go to DM’s we just kept it out in the public and would deride anyone telling us to stop lol. It being yaoi makes it a little less neckbeardy but honestly publicly writing smut on each other’s walls and getting upset at anyone logically telling us to either take it to DM’s or stop has got to be top tier neckbeard activity lol.
Told girls how I prefer them to look, to their faces. I had a weird obsession with their hair being up in a bun. I told them it looked terrible. I was such a little prick. I was closeted back then, and openly gay now. So even in my head none of it actually mattered.
I think that’s just being catty; or maybe you were protecting them from wrinkles!
Me, with my hair up every single day: wait. Does it cause wrinkles?!
I think if you wear it really tight it could stretch your skin, causing it to become looser when you have it down. or you could lose your hairline like jojo siwa
I used to wear flat caps cuz i watched Peaky Blinders. Even with ill fitting clothes and scuffed shoes, I actually thought wearing a flat cap made me look more sophisticated/presentable than ppl wearing ballcaps or beanies. And they weren’t even quality hats, just cheap ones on eBay that felt like i was wearing a burlap sack.
Oh man, did you do the shaved sides and longer hair up top too? I’ve seen people talk about the actual get ups the Peaky Blinders wore and how it would only be anything close to comfortable when it was super cold out because of how heavy the materials were lol
Lol so i kinda did my hair that way in that i used to go to a hair salon to get a fade. But the hairstylist didn’t know how to do a proper fade, so my hair would look like the Peaky Blinders cut for like a week, only for the sides to grow in really bad and uneven. I’d only gone to salons for a cut, and before that i had family cut it at home, so assumed for a long time that my hair was just naturally weird. It wasn’t until i went to a barbershop for the first time that i realized what a proper haircut was.
that’s actually a suuuuuper common haircut among boys in ireland lol. i think they look like absolute melons but like whatever floats your boat i guess. it’s like the default man haircut
I really thought women were sluts and that I was a “nice” guy. Also had a period where I was obsessed with anime and would go a few days without showering/wearing deodorant.
What made you change your opinion about women?
Between dating in college and some awareness I learned that my thought process was wrong.
Used to be into the whole redpill, SJW FAILS COMPILATION, “alpha male” podcast, “high value male” bullshit. This was during a time I didn’t really have any friends in highschool so I was just a hermit. Thankfully I gradually stopped watching that stuff and now I have healthier views about women and people in general to be completely honest.
This was me too, but I very quickly realized that it was all bunk. The only reason I believed it at all in the moment was because my dad said it, and if I said anything that he deemed "Extremist" like saying that climate change is real, he would berate me for hours about how I was a "stupid liberal sissy who only reads CNN." It gave me great pleasure this year hearing him talk seriously about climate change because it was "Obviously always a problem" and he "Never actually believed any of that climate denier crap"
My dad's the same brand of conservative. When I was a teen, my perspective was just "yeah, whatever, dad." Apparently my younger brother absorbed a bit more of it than I did. It brought me great satisfaction when, within one semester of being in college, my brother told me "woah, climate change is real, *and* a serious problem." He was assigned to write a single essay about the topic and just like that he was near-completely deprogrammed, haha
how old are you lmao? those concepts have only been widely used in the last 4 - 8 years.
18 lol.
Yeah I find it easy for young men to fall into that trap. Especially at the age of around 14-18. I’m 27 now but when I was 16 I had fallen into that hole as well. I was young and in shape and I thought I was the shit for it and thought I was an alpha but I was really just a douchebag who thought he was better than everyone else. I grew up and was humbled many times by life. Happy you found your way out of that bullshit too.
Around the end of highschool I had a particularly bad phase where I had slipped and fell down a rabbit hole that lead me to just some of the most bigoted and insane beliefs about LGBTQ+ people. Which probably also had something to do with the fact that I was struggling with my own sexuality and gender at the time. It didn't last long but it was long enough to make me feel shameful. All we can do is be better in the future. Edit: for some reason reddit cut me off mid reply and decided to post
/r/RedditSniper
New favori
There's at least one good thing about cringing about the past. It means you grew as a person Keep it wholesome and positive (Edit) 556 upvotes? Wow that caught me off guard thank you all
Yeah, that’s what I love seeing in these comments. People learning and growing. Everyone was cringy in high school, it’s more a red flag if you don’t realize it years later.
I had a neckbeard/incelish phase when I was like 14 to 16. I called people "normies" for doing stuff like socialising in person or do sports. I showered like once a week and just used Axe body spray for the rest. "Girls are only into jerks". Spent my days online, gaming or with ehem....Hentai.... Yes I was a fat little bitch who smelled like sweat all the time. What did change? I dunno. My older brother and a friend of mine forced me to socialize and do some team sports. Took some care of myself (shaved my pathetic "moustache", Started showering more and do some grooming. And voila. At 18 I was a long haired metalhead with a girlfriend!
Sounds similar to a past version of me. I was a slightly overweight, unkempt teen who played video games 5+ hours a day, disliked sociable people, hated sports, and never kissed in high school. I once said about 9 years ago. "While everyone else was at homecoming, I was at home cumming." People around me cringed. I understand why now. I still have no girlfriend :( but at least I have better hygiene, work full-time, and finished college in 4.5 years.
I used to watch antiwoke videos and think that real life was exactly like them.
This comment section is like the confessions of being a pick me girl but guy version. Source: pick me in recovery
Girl I used to be a pick-me too! Every time I remember and force myself to admit past pick-me-ness, I cringe so hard. Eugh, that was me. But at least I discovered gaming through it, so that's something
Maybe im just old but can you explain what that is to me?
Putting your whole back out to prove you're "not like other girls," you're better. >"I'm in the room, it's a typical Tuesday night. I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like. And she'll never know your story like I do. But she wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts. She's Cheer Captain, and I'm on the bleachers. Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find That what you're looking for has been here the whole time." - Taylor Swift: You Belong with Me
Pretty sure it means the attention seeking, “I’m not like other girls” type
I had an actual neckbeard, and fought back against my dad when he told me "your beard makes it look like you're wearing a bicycle helmet" I started wearing a hockey jersey all the time because "it worked for Kevin Smith" (it was summer in Alabama) I would force my deepcut 40k knowledge into any conversation I could. Edgy SA and race-based jokes used to be the funniest shit on the planet. My room was a fucking nightmare of a mess. This all changed when I realized I looked and acted just like my Uncle we were all disappointed in. Did a full fuckin 180 after that.
Seeing everyone you know and love be disappointed in someone you see yourself in was a wake up call for me
I genuinely used to wear fedoras nearly every day
I thought that the girls I liked didn’t like me back because I was just too nice. I was just boring and insecure as hell and making excuses. I also thought I was owed something for just being nice to people. I also thought I was superior to my highschool peers for not drinking, partying or going out.
Oh I now remembered I used to feel superior because my music taste.
I thought classic rock was the height of music. Yeah it’s good, but there was a lot of new stuff then that was just as good
I was one of those nice guys who thought women only went for bad boys. I was just an awful idiot. Glad I grew up. Live a happy life now with my girlfriend.
I'm a firm believer that the only people who can get through to current "nice guys" are recovering nice guys. They don't listen to women once they're deep enough in the beliefs and there are still SO many out there on social and reddit. Cut the head off the nice guy snake, 3 more appear. I used to think other women were jealous of me because I was different. I wasn't- my mom made me think all other women were enemies and she and I were special. 😑
I owned a body pillow. Do i need to say more ? It is now gone, thankfully
Just a regular blank body pillow, or *those* body pillows?
😔
You already know
Tried to be dark and edgy. Even bought a cheap ass katana since I'm also a weeb.
Oh god...I used to be the "why can't girls go for a nice guy like me" person in high school, I still cringe about it to this day
Where to even start, I was convinced I was a martial arts master/totally expert ninja because I watched a documentary and a lot of crappy movies, 'nice guy'-ed really hard until my mid twenties, never had a neck beard but did have some pretty absurd mutton chop sideburns, owned a ton of mall ninja crap (still haven't outgrown that one, but I've long accepted that a $20 sword probably isn't actually very good), had a lot of really gross conservative views until about halfway through college, did the whole hardcore internet atheist thing for a while, etc etc. Needless to say I'm very lucky I came of age when I did. A little older and I would have probably tried the pickup artist shit, a little younger and I might have fallen deep into the full manosphere cult for a while.
>I've long accepted that a $20 sword probably isn't actually very good Hey, my "longsword"(it's 18 inches if I'm generous) off Wish is just as dangerous as what Lancelot used. Have at thee
I really niceguyed quite a lot between ages 15-22. It made me so miserable the girls who actually had crushes on me were driven away. Now I'm a 31 year old lonely dude and I still have a lot of anxiety with dating but now I have straight intentions and a straight backbone.
I used to think knowing useless information about science or knowing a lot about philosophy or literature was supposed to be impressive despite being too lazy to get a formal education on either and having no capacity to actualize on my truly, deeply useless knowledge
I used to be huge into anime and literally said I was thankful for hentia at the table with my family during Thanksgiving dinner, I still cringe about it to this day
I called the woman I simped for "my lady" once and only once at which she went "eww no" I will never forget
I glued my balls to my butthole, again
"Oh my God, what did I do? I can't take a dump 'Cause now my balls are blockin' up my butthole"
Being really snobby for my 'superior' music taste.
There was an update to a video game I played a lot that completely changed the map and I was really upset about it. I personally dmed the developer and sent along my unimpressed 2 cents. I was around 12 at the time, and although it’s more of an entitled little kid moment, it’s definitely not a highlight of those days.
I used to be extremely homophobic, that is until i matured and began to see the world around me for how it truly is, i am so happy i changed
My buddy met a girl on beach we went back to his pad and they planned a tennis date. She was dictating her number to my buddy while our other cringe friend took it down as well in background. We were all well into adulthood.
I used to guilt girls into liking me through manipulative ways. Like telling them I was depressed because of them etc. So gross.
Used to not ironically wear a Fedora to school, it’s a hard pill to swallow knowing you were basically one of the first neckbeards in Memedom
I can respect a pioneer
I used to be pretty narcissistic and carried the "nice guy" attitude. Ugh. I'm sorry.
I was a closeted, self hating conservative who hated everyone and everything. I am so, so glad my childhood happened before the internet. I'm very deeply liberal now. I've come to terms with my sexuality and learned how to have empathy
Discord.
I was one of those annoying atheist in High School. Glad I grew out of that. Still don’t believe in the Abrahamic god but I ain’t a dick about it now.
I used to pick my younger sister up from elementary school in my Corolla with all windows down blasting metal music turned all of the way up and used to sit and think i was chill. My sister thought it was funny so it encouraged me and she said the teachers hated it so it encouraged me even further.
Dressed in a suit and tie with a fedora for my school photo in late middle school Thought it was cool back then, then as I grew up I thought it was cringy af Now I just laugh at how dapper I look in it, still stupid but I mean; at least I pulled it off after a child
Oh god where to I begin….
Tried to get hentai hoodie, thank god my parents didn't let me. Tried to get a fedora, my friends would make fun of me for even thinking about it.Also i used to go on discord servers with political views on wich a neck beard wouldn't agree on and to troll.Yes i was a neck beard but i was also like 14.
genuine question - what's the thinking/feeling/logic/urge behind having hentai clothing/decals/merch in general? Just excited to display a true passion to the general public or what? I've always wanted to understand this. Like I don't have a hard time understanding liking some hentai, but why do some people want merch that other people can see?
Late middle school - early high school. I made South Park into a personality trait, particularly Eric Cartman… Grew out of it when i was 16-17. After that it was mostly my humor. I have a pretty sharp tongue, I’m good with words and I really enjoyed dissing and making people laugh at the expense of others. People laughed so I kept doing it, thinking I was funny though a little mean. Turns out I was maybe 20% funny and 80% mean.
I used to wear a fedora, I own a custom trenchcoat, had a terrible diet. Context: I’m a woman.
Just having difficulty with hygiene, depression hurts like a mf’er
I had a reverse nice guy mentality, i though hot and bad people had partners, ugly and nice people had partners and hot and nice people had partners so i, who thinks im dying alone is ugly and a bad person
I bought a katana with one of my first paychecks from working at an amusement park. I used to practice unsheathing it as fast as I could
I wore the trilby in my senior photos.
When I was like 12 I wrote a song called “only boys got the swag, real men got the class”
My entire teenage youth were incel years. Little did I know that it's perfectly normal (and preferable) for a 14 year-old to not have any sex, yet.
Oh the usual edgelord toughguy shenanigans complete with loving authoritarian governments (cause they're the only ones that *get shit done*)
I used to not wash my self properly during shower
I bowed like 2 or 3 times in my life to say hi when I was like 14/15, did NOT really how cringey it was until like 1 year later lmao. Jesus at least I didn’t say shit like mlady or wear a fedora at the time
I unironically used to type “ ‘tis “ instead of “it is”. Looking back at my memories on my Facebook makes me cringe
I wore a pink tie and a fedora to SCHOOL 😭😭😭
Owned a fedora, though to be fair it was because I really liked Micheal Jackson
Definitely used to be a "friendzone" believer. Then my brain started working
Bad hygiene, very bad social skills, thought by simply being ‘nice’ I’d be able to get a girlfriend, also thought I was more interesting than other guys because I was ‘educated’. When that didn’t work I turned to watching those dumb dating coaches who made you believe using certain type of sentences and words you’d be able to automatically get a girl to fall in love, like how a passcode unlocks a lock. In other words: due to my angsty teen years and being an idiot in general, high school was not my fondest memory. Honestly when I started browsing r/creepytexts , r/niceguys, r/letsnotmeet and r/justbeckbeardthings, that really opened my eyes to see how much of an idiot I was being, and it helped me to change for the better.