It's been my experience that spending a lot of time with cautionary tales spun mostly out of imagination teaches people that the consequences of things can be predicted in the same way one might predict the course of a story. This is demonstrably an inaccurate assessment of human ability to consistently predict the future. Stories tend to adhere to specific patterns that make them comprehensible. Reality is under no such obligations.

The issue arises when people try to shape the future and one another in ways that depend on these faulty predictions. Before long, you wind up with people who essentially believe that Cambridge Analytica was easily predictable from the invention of TCP/IP and thus that they (or we) are responsible for averting it. That false assurance is cringe, and it seems to come about in no small part from confusing the conformity of narrative fiction for messy reality.

Okay but what are some cringe examples you know?

I think he's purposefully leaving out examples because the way liberal arts majors are cringe are usually ways that can start flame wars.

But we're on HN, we can discuss our differences with reason and logic. Surely there are examples worthy of examination and critique.

You have one upthread: "hubris" and "life finds a way", via story of Icarus and Jurassic Park.

Plenty others involve deep-sounding cliches. "Death gives meaning to life" comes to mind. There is a whole subgenre of extreme litart cringe, known as corporate speak. "Synergy", referencing Odysseus, old folk saws, "team that trusts", etc.