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1 [p] [1]Skip to main content[2]Skip to navigation 2 Close dialogue1/1Next imagePrevious imageToggle caption 3 [7]Skip to navigation 4 [8]Print subscriptions 5 [9]Newsletters 6 [10] Sign in 7 US[11][ ] 8 9 • [12]US edition 10 • [13]UK edition 11 • [14]Australia edition 12 • [15]Europe edition 13 • [16]International edition 14 15 [17]The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian 16 [18][ ] 17 18 • [19]News 19 • [20]Opinion 20 • [21]Sport 21 • [22]Culture 22 • [23]Lifestyle 23 24 Show moreHide expanded menu 25 26 • [24][ ]News 27 □ [25]View all News 28 □ [26]US news 29 □ [27]US politics 30 □ [28]World news 31 □ [29]Climate crisis 32 □ [30]Middle East 33 □ [31]Ukraine 34 □ [32]Soccer 35 □ [33]Business 36 □ [34]Environment 37 □ [35]Tech 38 □ [36]Science 39 □ [37]Newsletters 40 □ [38]Wellness 41 • [39][ ]Opinion 42 □ [40]View all Opinion 43 □ [41]The Guardian view 44 □ [42]Columnists 45 □ [43]Letters 46 □ [44]Opinion videos 47 □ [45]Cartoons 48 • [46][ ]Sport 49 □ [47]View all Sport 50 □ [48]Soccer 51 □ [49]NFL 52 □ [50]Tennis 53 □ [51]MLB 54 □ [52]MLS 55 □ [53]NBA 56 □ [54]WNBA 57 □ [55]NHL 58 □ [56]F1 59 □ [57]Golf 60 • [58][ ]Culture 61 □ [59]View all Culture 62 □ [60]Film 63 □ [61]Books 64 □ [62]Music 65 □ [63]Art & design 66 □ [64]TV & radio 67 □ [65]Stage 68 □ [66]Classical 69 □ [67]Games 70 • [68][ ]Lifestyle 71 □ [69]View all Lifestyle 72 □ [70]Wellness 73 □ [71]Fashion 74 □ [72]Food 75 □ [73]Recipes 76 □ [74]Love & sex 77 □ [75]Home & garden 78 □ [76]Health & fitness 79 □ [77]Family 80 □ [78]Travel 81 □ [79]Money 82 • Search input 83 [80][ ] 84 google-search 85 Search 86 □ [83]Support us 87 □ [84]Print subscriptions 88 □ [85]Newsletters 89 □ [86]Download the app 90 • 91 □ [87]Search jobs 92 □ [88]Digital Archive 93 □ [89]Guardian Licensing 94 □ [90]About Us 95 □ [91]The Guardian app 96 □ [92]Video 97 □ [93]Podcasts 98 □ [94]Pictures 99 □ [95]Inside the Guardian 100 □ [96]Guardian Weekly 101 □ [97]Crosswords 102 □ [98]Wordiply 103 □ [99]Corrections 104 • Search input 105 [100][ ] 106 google-search 107 Search 108 □ [103]Search jobs 109 □ [104]Digital Archive 110 □ [105]Guardian Licensing 111 □ [106]About Us 112 113 • [107]The Guardian view 114 • [108]Columnists 115 • [109]Letters 116 • [110]Opinion videos 117 • [111]Cartoons 118 119 Mark Zuckerberg in heavy-framed augmented reality glasses 120 [112][ ] 121 ‘Mark Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe – but cringe all the same. His 122 cringe moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to 123 turn inside out at my bellybutton,’ Rebecca Shaw writes. Photograph: Bloomberg/ 124 Getty Images 125 [113]View image in fullscreen 126 ‘Mark Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe – but cringe all the same. His 127 cringe moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to 128 turn inside out at my bellybutton,’ Rebecca Shaw writes. Photograph: Bloomberg/ 129 Getty Images 130 [115]Opinion[116]Technology 131 132 I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just 133 didn’t expect them to be such losers 134 135 [117]Rebecca Shaw 136 137 Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s desperation to be cool as they suck up to 138 Donald Trump is so cringe it makes my skin crawl 139 140 Thu 16 Jan 2025 09.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 16 Jan 2025 09.03 EST 141 [118]Share 142 143 I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but everything seems to be going 144 down the tubes quite fast. And not fun tubes, like at a waterpark. The “ending 145 in shit” kind. The issues are complicated, the reasons diverse, but there are a 146 few culprits who have been making themselves extremely visible. 147 148 Alongside those holding political office, tech gragillionnaires (I had to 149 invent a new number) like Elon Musk and [119]Mark Zuckerberg obviously wield 150 huge global influence with their computers and numbers and whatnot. There has 151 been a lot written about them and there will be more, as they continue to shape 152 the world and win favour with Donald Trump. Big, scary, probably ruinous things 153 lie ahead. But I’m here to discuss the smaller part. The insult to injury, the 154 sprinkling of salt in the wound. 155 156 Whether I am engaging with the news, or with Musk tweeting constantly like a 157 man with no job or friends, or with Zuckerberg sending out weird videos and 158 appearing on Rogan, I am in pain. Not just because I don’t like what they are 159 doing but because they are so incredibly, painfully cringe. 160 161 [120] 162 Move fast, break things – sprint to kiss Trump’s ring. It’s the tech bros 163 inauguration derby | Marina Hyde 164 Read more 165 166 I knew that one day we might have to watch as capitalism and greed and bigotry 167 led to a world where powerful men, deserving or not, would burn it all down. 168 What I didn’t expect, and don’t think I could have foreseen, is how incredibly 169 cringe it would all be. I have been prepared for evil, for greed, for cruelty, 170 for injustice – but I did not anticipate that the people in power would also be 171 such huge losers. 172 173 I’ve always been someone who cannot tolerate embarrassment. I hate being 174 embarrassed more than just about any other emotion and I’ve always skipped 175 content based on cringe humour like Meet the Parents, Borat or Nathan for You. 176 It makes my skin crawl and it makes the contents of my stomach try to crawl out 177 of my mouth. But I cannot skip world events. 178 179 Nor can I skip Musk’s clear desperation, even as he holds this much wealth and 180 power in his hands, to be thought of as cool. There are [121]endless examples 181 of him embarrassing himself while attempting to be funny or to gain respect. 182 Unfortunately, while you may be able to buy power, it’s impossible to buy a 183 good personality. Watching his Nigel-no-friends attempts to be popular, his 184 endless pathetic tweets that read as though they come from the brain of an 185 11-year-old poser, has made me start to believe we should bring back bullying. 186 If yet another humiliating report in the last couple of days is to be believed, 187 he appears even to have lost the respect of some of his gamer audience, [122] 188 who the report claims suspect that he may have been lying about his 189 achievements in hardcore gaming (cursed sentence). 190 191 Zuckerberg is a different kind of cringe – but cringe all the same. His cringe 192 moments drip through more sparingly but, when they do, my body tries to turn 193 inside out at my bellybutton. His physical makeover for Maga reasons, [123] 194 performing music because no one will stop him, trying to [124]look cool on a 195 surfboard – all these are extremely difficult to watch. He has been trying to 196 suck up to Trump, [125]going on Joe Rogan’s show to say society has been 197 “neutered” and companies need “more masculine energy”. 198 199 Putting on what is clearly a bro disguise to join the boys’ club and sit at the 200 big boy table – it should feel humiliating. This came as Zuckerberg [126]rolled 201 back hate speech and factchecking rules at Meta, in a clear swerve to the right 202 before Trump’s inauguration. What could be more masculine and cool than selling 203 out vulnerable communities and women to impress the alpha male? 204 205 Climate crises keep coming, genocides continue, women keep getting murdered, 206 art is being strangled to death by AI, bigotry is on the rise, social progress 207 is being rolled back … AND these men insist on being cringe? It’s a rotten 208 cherry on top. This combination of evil and embarrassment is a unique horror, 209 one that science fiction has failed to prepare us for. The second-hand 210 embarrassment we have to endure gets even more potent when combined with other 211 modern influences on young men, like [127]Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate. 212 213 [128] 214 Is Andrew Tate going to reinvent himself as a politician and ‘save Britan [sic] 215 ’? | Arwa Mahdawi 216 Read more 217 218 Peterson is a big voice in men’s rights – well, a small Kermit’s voice in men’s 219 rights – and he’s also an embarrassment. So much so that he has his own [129] 220 Know Your Meme page, which covers that time [130]he[131] [132]reportedly 221 retweeted an image from a fetish film, apparently believing it was a Chinese 222 communist “sperm extraction” facility. He deleted it shortly afterwards. 223 224 Tate is facing human trafficking charges but rose to fame as a voice for young 225 men, a misogynist in bad outfits who does really cool things like smoking 226 cigars, wearing sunnies inside and trying to drag human rights back 100 years. 227 228 Living your life to impress other men by hating women is one of the most 229 embarrassing things I can imagine. Looking up to any of these men for how to 230 live your life is even sadder. 231 232 I’ve worked hard to keep these kinds of men out of my personal life, to keep 233 them away from me, out of my goddamn sight. Now they are in my face daily, not 234 only influencing the world for the worse but making me nauseous at how uncool 235 and pathetic they are, on top of their other sins. It’s too much, I can’t take 236 it, there needs to be a change. 237 238 It’s time for us to start getting revenge on the nerds. 239 240 • Rebecca Shaw is a writer based in Sydney 241 242 243 Explore more on these topics 244 245 • [133]Technology 246 • [134]Opinion 247 • [135]Elon Musk 248 • [136]Mark Zuckerberg 249 • [137]Donald Trump 250 • [138]Jordan Peterson 251 • [139]Andrew Tate 252 • [140]Men 253 • [141]comment 254 255 [142]Share 256 [143]Reuse this content 257 258 Most viewed 259 260 Most viewed 261 262 1. 263 2. 264 3. 265 4. 266 5. 267 6. 268 7. 269 8. 270 9. 271 10. 272 273 • [144]The Guardian view 274 • [145]Columnists 275 • [146]Letters 276 • [147]Opinion videos 277 • [148]Cartoons 278 279 • [149]News 280 • [150]Opinion 281 • [151]Sport 282 • [152]Culture 283 • [153]Lifestyle 284 285 Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every 286 morning 287 [154]Sign up for our email 288 289 • [155]About us 290 • [156]Help 291 • [157]Complaints & corrections 292 • [158]SecureDrop 293 • [159]Work for us 294 • 295 • [160]Privacy policy 296 • [161]Cookie policy 297 • [162]Terms & conditions 298 • [163]Contact us 299 300 • [164]All topics 301 • [165]All writers 302 • [166]Digital newspaper archive 303 • [167]Tax strategy 304 • [168]Facebook 305 • [169]YouTube 306 • [170]Instagram 307 • [171]LinkedIn 308 • [172]Newsletters 309 310 • [173]Advertise with us 311 • [174]Guardian Labs 312 • [175]Search jobs 313 314 [176]Back to top 315 © 2025 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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