[HiYaBarbie]

Oh come on. We all know politicians break their promises and lie all the damn time.

We all know there's massive surveillance everywhere, very much against the citizens' wishes.

We all know politicians don't give a shit about us, as evidenced by their actions.

If you want to claim otherwise, you're either being dishonest or just delusional.

[mercer]

Or capable of understanding that most things are not all bad or all good, and even when thinks are mostly-bad, good can be done.

I'm not saying that you are not capable of this; I don't know you.

What I do know is that I've often expressed blanket-statement cynicism and I regret that now. Once I got to know people who are fighting 'on the inside', I started realizing that things are more complicated, and a lot of good can (still) be achieved. From that point on, I concluded that maintaining my cynicism would be nothing short of laziness or defensiveness, and I decided to either shut up or work toward change.

I'm still a cynic in many ways, but at least I try not to discourage others from fighting battles that I do not fight, whether out of laziness or cynicism. Because I truly think much more stuff can be changed than we think. And besides, sitting around being cynical doesn't help at all.