Post #2298336

2026-05-02 05:46 UTC

Today&#39;s &quot;what&#39;s the German word for ___&quot; is &quot;Fremdscham,&quot; vicarious embarrassment on seeing the actions or encountering the words of another. Can be thought of as the opposite of Schadenfreude. Fremdscham is what I get when watching a Ben Stiller comedy, or reading the absolute WTF Richard Dawkins was writing about his chatbot crush.

Replies (3)

@bitprophet@social.coop 2026-05-02 14:04

@randomgeek@masto.hackers.town oh, hi. I’m now at the point where I’ll just actively avoid media revolving around embarrassment humor, it makes me so thoroughly uncomfortable. Naturally the Germans have a word for it!

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@minego@pdx.social 2026-05-02 16:00

@randomgeek@masto.hackers.town omg, that is such a useful word.

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@semifor@nerdfight.online 2026-05-02 16:12

@randomgeek@masto.hackers.town This me. E.g., a group of family members yucking it up over a radio show where they call somebody suspected of cheating to tell them they've won an expensive flower arrangement via their grocery store rewards membership. Who would they like delivered to? Accuser waiting silently on the line to jump in when they're outed. Or when the accuser realizes they've made a horrible mistake. And I'm over in the corner, anxiety meter smashing the stop at the top end of the red-zone because it's awful for everybody. I'd be more comfortable getting a root canal with no anesthetic.

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