Liberal Cringe will kill us all

When I was about 18 or 19, so in about 2009 maybe, I owned a T-shirt that had a cartoon Obama on it. He was dressed like Superman only the ‘S’ on his chest was an ‘O’. I thought it was the greatest piece of clothing that had ever been made.

In my defence, I received a lot of positive reinforcement. Wearing that thing around Newtown or Camperdown was a guaranteed way to get a thumbs-up or an “I love your shirt!” from somebody. I would ride that high for days.

One time I was wearing it outside Glebe markets (I know) and a guy selling Green Left Weekly or Solidarity or one of those papers no one reads saw it and asked me if I wanted to know why Obama wasn't actually as great as he seemed. I brushed him off and told people about it later as a joke. He gave off a really annoying vibe as a lot of those guys often do and it really burns me 15 years later to know that he was right the whole time.

Every time I encounter a display of smarmy, overly earnest liberal political rhetoric coupled with the most heinous violence you can imagine I’m reminded powerfully of that shirt. This has become a problem I’m facing more and more for obvious reasons but it really seems to have cranked up in the last few months. I don’t know what the connection is between unctuous do-nothing liberal politics and cringe but it’s there and it’s bone-deep.