Why is it that large amounts of excitement and interest in a subject gets labeled as "cringey" or embarrassing? Does it represent lack of social awareness and shared contextual understanding? Have we just been taught that polite indifference is the best way to act around others?
I became curious about this after I read a joking remark that "people who have less nerdy interests than me are normies, people who have too many nerdy interests are autistic"— what accounts for that impulse to shame either side of the spectrum?