AOC Uses Midterm Election To Perfectly Explain Where 'Millennial Cringe' Comes From To Gen Z

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez broke down where so-called "millennial cringe" comes from to Gen Z voters after Democrats swept midterm election races to win back both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in a clear repudiation of the Trump administration.

The term "millennial cringe" has gained popularity among Gen Z to mock the optimistic Internet culture of the 2010s. Ocasio-Cortez said "millennial cringe" is understandable when you consider the impact millennials had by electing Barack Obama, who became the nation's first Black president.

Ocasio-Cortez was 19 in 2008, when Obama won that year's election against Republican John McCain.

Ocasio-Cortez said:

"Also a note for Gen Z, if you want to understand millennial cringe, what you all call millennial cringe, this earnestness, imagine all the seats we flipped last night, that feeling plus on top of it, electing the first Black president ever, and on top of that, you did it the first time you ever voted, that hits generationally. You are chasing that feeling ever since."

"And because you did it the first time you ever voted, you're like, yeah, we can change the world. Like, yeah, why not? Like, we did it the first time. Let's just do it again."

You can hear what she said in the video below.

Many concurred with her assessment.

Ocasio-Cortez is currently the most prominent woman politician advocating a democratic socialist platform; the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is doing a victory lap after candidates endorsed by the organization and its local chapters were elected to the House of Representatives.

NPR reports that the DSA's influence "also became a prominent attack line for Republicans, who sought to paint the broader Democratic Party as too extreme and link more moderate candidates to democratic socialist figures" such as Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.