Mine was probably when I relapsed towards religion at age 15-16 and joined my mom’s conservative megachurch, naïvely thinking I can convince them to be less bigoted and more “christ-like” as well as accept science

      • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
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        Not OP, but also an annoying adolescent atheist. After actually giving it some thought, I realized I was contextualizing the concept all wrong. Just because most people seem to contextualize God as a Santa Claus figure (bearded man who lives above us and judges our conduct, with fitting consequences) didn’t mean I had to accept that context.

        There have been many very intelligent people across history who had many interesting things to say about deity. Few of them were using the Santa Claus model.

      • TonoManza@lemmygrad.ml
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        4 days ago

        Joining the “not op” train since I have a different answer than the others: I was peak annoying/edgy “debate bro” atheist and I ultimately became religious again but for a different religion.

        Can elaborate if you want, I just don’t want to risk going on an unprovoked tangent lol.

    • gerryflap@feddit.nl
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      Same. At some point I became friends with pretty religious people who were also some of the most intelligent and nice people I had met. My beliefs that religious people are just dumb people who cannot understand the complexity of the real world kinda fell apart then.

      I returned back to my pre-teen opinion, still an atheist but with compassion for other people’s beliefs. No need to constantly force my opinion into it or needlessly be a dick because we disagree. I’ve had many interesting discussions since then with very religious people. I still don’t fully get it, and to me it still reeks of indoctrination, but I’ve accepted that it’s fine to disagree.

    • gi1242@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      oh lol. been there done that. finally learnt it’s never worth your time to try and change someone’s beliefs.

  • SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world
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    I was that nerdy kid that would tell anyone at every possible opportunity that thier iPhone was locked down garbage and they should switch to Android. Now I find any kind of vocal brand loyalty incredibly cringe as it just reminds me how I used to be when I was 14.

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    I went through a pretty big libertarian phase way back in my late teens.

    Not the ‘deregulate everything’ type, but rather more of a ‘everyone’s place in society is governed by the choices they make’ social-darwinist sort of angle.

    Once I got out and experienced real life more (and learned about all the little nuances behind everything) I realized just how wrong I was.

    Nowadays I’m a big leftist/socialist

    • ganymede@lemmy.ml
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      seems like i’m mostly telling people in this thread not to feel bad about their prior cringe…

      i really didn’t follow this closely AT ALL. but i feel like back in the day libertarian ideas were much more left of center than they are now. to my inexpert perception, it feels like libertarianism (and alot of other things) have been co-opted by conservatism over the years.

      • FindME@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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        Maybe it’s just me, but libertarians have always been a weird bunch, because there are some large gaps between those who fall under its banner. I’ve seen anarchist commune types as well as the ‘government better watch out because I’m the only owner of THIS land’ prickly sorts at the same event. It’s not so much that the ideals of libertarian thought have been taken into conservative realms, but that the sorts of libertarians who could align with the ‘conservative’ drive to make the government small and speak up loudly are now getting their moment in the spotlight.

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    When I was like 12, I thought chain wallets were the shit. Unfortunately my parents wouldn’t let me have one. I ended up hooking a bunch of Disney keychains together and wore that as my chain wallet. This was often worn with my favorite sleeveless neon green shirt and my lucky black and white checkered shorts.

    • SuzyQ@sh.itjust.works
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      When I was 14-15 I wanted a wallet chain, but they were banned at my school. I made one of of safety pins that looped down past my knees. Somehow my linked safety pins were ok…

    • Aneb@lemmy.world
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      I had a chain watch because I thought they were cool. It was a cheap, but probably better quality than it needed to be ( the chain broke quickly), it was from hot topic. Also it was an attack on titan chain watch

  • spicy pancake@lemmy.zip
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    Homestuck phase 😬
    I like to think I was in the middle of the cringeometer for that fandom but who knows.

  • ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de
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    All of my teenage years were cringe but at some point I changed my clothing style to be more like that one dude in class who took drugs, sprayed graffiti and was always in trouble. Because he once said to me I could draw pretty good.

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    My anime days.

    This was back before anime really took off in the US, so most people had no idea what it was. This was before the term “weeaboo” was invented, but I’d have been called one if it had been.

  • ganymede@lemmy.ml
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    @op looking back, what was the specific cringe aspect of what you described in your story?

    that you’d hope for this seemingly impossible outcome, of being a positive force in an established group with a clear bigoted direction?

    or that you feel foolish for relapsing into believing religious topics again?

    or something else?

  • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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    My cringe only grew more powerful as I aged. King of cringe my whole life.

    Unfortunately I was blind sided by blue conservatives jerking themselves off over what trump will do to people they dislike. I have since lost my crown.