#cynicism — Public Fediverse posts

@cameron29 @Sir_Limpalot @randahl

the #psyop to destroy #democracy is:

1. #bigotry and #ignorance on the right
2. #perfectionism and #cynicism on the left

"BoTh SiDeS tHe SaMe" are the "thoughts" of a soft compliant product, a willing subject to #fascism via cynicism

#democrats suck

but if you're working to improve society outside the #vote, democrats in power make your life easier, so you vote for that

more likely, you aren't doing shit to improve society, just an entitled whiner

Apparently AI is not enough now. I just saw a major science organization call out SI or Super Intelligence.

Not sure what to say about. #grumpy #cynicism

This is a blog post about generosity and cynicism. It can also be read on my blog: https://teunvanson.eu/plum-village-cynicism/. Below is the full text.

=====================
Plum Village & cynicism
=====================

This summer I spent a week at Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery in the southwest of France. And this place held up a mirror in a way that I didn't expect.

There are lots of ways in which this retreat changed me as a person, but here I want to discuss one specific thing that happened there. Plum Village made me realize that I have grown cynical.

Paradise
========

It went roughly like this. I arrive at a beautiful place – an open area amid the farmland with a few buildings sprinkled around, and beside that mostly grass and trees. Everybody there walks calmly, slowly. People smile at each other. I learn where to pitch my tent, and I do, amid the trees to shelter it from the evening sun.

A bell rings. People stop walking. They stop talking. They stop everything and close their eyes. I do the same, although I'm not sure why. I later learn that this is to remind ourselves to watch our breathing and ground ourselves in the moment. Every bell – and there are many in Plum Village – is an opportunity to get back to the here and now.

We queue silently for dinner. The food is wonderful – wholesome, simple, vegan. I learn that the monastics practice 'eating meditation': eating mindfully, with full attention to the food, and with gratefulness to everyone and everything who provided the food. Eating slowly is difficult for me, but I'm was trying.

The next morning I get up and decide to do some farm work as my morning exercise. We get to pick tomatoes, and the smell of the tomato plant almost makes me cry. (That evening, these tomatoes would be served during dinner.)

We do everything slowly. The schedule is forgiving: 5:45 exercise, 6:30 sitting meditation, 7:45 breakfast, 9:30 walking meditation, 10:45 Dharma talk, 12:30 lunch, 14:15 deep relaxation, 16:00 Dharma sharing, 17:45 dinner, noble silence from 21:30. There's lots of time between each activity. In any case, most activities involve resting in some way – and all of them are done with ease and serenity.

The Catch
=========

At a certain point I catch myself wondering: all the sisters in here are so peaceful. There is so much generosity. Life is so simple here. What's the catch?

I go through the options: Is there some kind of hyper-strict ideology behind this? Is this a way to lure people into their cult? Is it a way to make money? Perhaps they harbor a deep hatred for a specific group of people? Are these people secretly miserable?

My friends, the closest I came to finding a 'catch' is that they seem to have a dislike for spicy food.

In other words: **there is no catch**.

---

This realization made me dizzy. I realized how used I am to being skeptical of things that seem too good to be true. I was buried so deep into my cynicism that I couldn't recognize and accept generosity, kindness and happiness when it was right there in front of my eyes.

Why does genuine happiness have to come with a catch? I don't rationally believe that humans are incapable of true, sustained happiness. I have a generally positive view of human nature. Yet for days I couldn't see this place for what it was.

Cynicism
========

Reflecting back on this, it's not surprising that I was so cynical. In my context – Western Europe in 2026 – cynicism is a survival strategy.

Bullshit is absolutely everywhere. Just outside my door there is a billboard cycling through ads telling me to buy Dior perfume, the latest Samsung phone (with AI!), groceries at *this* particular supermarket. Late capitalism, and advertising specifically, are waging psychological warfare on all of us to keep us ever wanting more, buying more, wanting more, buying more.

My municipality is advertising diversity and inclusion while gutting civil society organizations (particularly those with inconvenient opinions) and universities, and their police is happily using surveillance technology made in Israel. Activists are being raided, detained and processed like criminals while multinational corporations can keep polluting the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we live on.

No wonder I'm cynical.

Interbeing
=========

But one of the many things I've taken from my time at Plum Village is that you cannot be a force for change if your inner state is not peaceful. If you are unmindful, out of balance, at war with yourself, then whatever you try to do in the world is not going to have the effect that you want it to have.

The deep insight of Buddhism is that all things are interconnected. You are not just you, for you are connected to and co-constituted by your surroundings.¹

You may think that you can put away your stormy weather and work for a good cause instead, but interbeing teaches us that the stormy weather *will* manifest in the outside world. There is no separation.

This is why I think it is important for people who call themselves activists to pay attention to themselves and their own inner state.² **Not** as a liberal, individualist form of 'self-care'. **Not** as a way to focus on individual people's footprints, as BP would like us to do. But simply because inner and outer world are not separated.

That's why I want to fight the cynicism in myself *despite the fact that it is an understandable and reasonable response to my current situation*. It is a self-defense attitude, but one that hardens me and keeps me from seeing deep beauty when it presents itself to me.

Through softness, Plum Village held up a mirror and showed me my own hardened self.

----------
Footnotes

1. Some even say that you *are* everything else, and there is no separation at all. In *Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet*, Thich Nhat Hanh (the founder of the Plum Village tradition) writes: "We are a human being, yes, but at the same time we are everything. Seeing this, we know that to preserve other species is to preserve ourselves. This is interbeing, the deepest teaching of deep ecology." The 'deep ecology' he refers to is an environmental movement spearheaded by Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss. While I think deep ecology is admirable and full of valuable insight, I agree with ecofeminist philosopher Val Plumwood when she criticized (in the paper Nature, Self, and Gender) precisely this 'all is one' aspect, arguing that it erases difference rather than engaging with it. It's not that everything is the same, but everything is *connected*, she argues. For instance, I am connected to the tree outside my window, and to my cat, and (to a lesser extent) to the plum trees in Plum Village, and so on. These connections are not just incidental: they make me who I am. But for these connections to exist, there need to be 'things' to connect to. Relationally constituted things, to be sure, not bounded and autonomous things – but things nonetheless.

2. According to Sister True Dedication (in *Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet*, p. vii–viii), Thich Nhat Hanh would sometimes say to his students: "Don't just *do* something, *sit there*!"

#PlumVillage #cynicism #bullshit #interbeing #buddhism #mindfulness #monastery #essay #blogpost #bearblog

@benroyce

So, for you Americans buried in #cynicism and #perfection, what are you learning?

In many cases, NOTHING

America needs a purge not a wealth tax.

There's a country with an #election in 2026 where the opposition is #centrist, not #leftist

Messing with the election, corrupt manipulation, by its authoritarian leader, figures in the election

So what's the point of voting?

Well the point is better, not perfection

Btw:

I'm not talking about the #USA

I'm talking about #Hungary, where this is just announced:

https://www.portfolio.hu/gazdasag/20260926/magyar-peter-bejelentette-2027-tol-jon-az-eddigi-terveknel-is-szigorubb-vagyonado-865408

So, for you Americans buried in #cynicism and #perfection, what are you learning?

#Vote!

#WealthTax

Diogène contre les idoles : du cynisme antique au néocynisme de Walter Benjamin

Antisthène et Diogène ne proposent pas une doctrine abstraite, mais une manière de vivre qui expose les mensonges de la cité. De la parrhèsia cynique au « caractère destructeur » de Benjamin, un même geste : dépouiller le monde de ses faux-semblants pour recommencer avec peu. #Cynicism #Diogenes #Antisthenes #WalterBenjamin #Philosophy #CriticalTheory #AntiCapitalism Diogène contre les…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/10/01/diogene-contre-les-idoles-du-cynisme-antique-au-neocynisme-de-walter-benjamin/

Marjorie Taylor Greene: "We have not seen a caravan headed to the United States' southern border in several years, why is one said to be coming from Honduras now? Oh yeah, there is an election coming and the Republican Party needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working for them."
#politics #cynicism #fearmongering

In the #USA important #midterms are coming up

" #Trump is going to mess with the #election"

"On a particular issue, both sides don't offer me anything"

"The #Democrats are going to win, they don't need me"

etc

#Perfectionism and #cynicism, as well as #MAGA, is how we creep towards #fascism

Another country earlier this year was facing similar/ worse prospects of meddling

The people showed up

And look at #Hungary now:

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/09/25/8055020/

We can kill Trump's agenda for 2 years: #Vote

New #blog #post: Gratitude Day 20: People of Conscience

https://rldane.space/gratitude-day-20-people-of-conscience.html

422 words

11k words so far this month! XD

cc: my wonderful #chorus: @joel @dm @sotolf @thedoctor @pixx @orbitalmartian @adamsdesk @krafter @roguefoam @clayton @giantspacesquid @stfn @golemwire

(I will happily add/remove you from the chorus upon request! :)

#rlDaneWriting #blost #SeptemberTheme #SeptemberBloggingTheme #SepThemeBear #SeptemberGratitude #gratitude #thankfulness #conscience #boomers #cynicism #FolkMusic

Attention #fediverse / #mastodon

We're entering #election season in the #USA. The #midterms

That means something for you:

You will see an increase in #trolls

Messages along the lines of

"Nothing ever changes, both sides the same, waah" #cynicism

And

"The candidate is unideal. Allow me to amplify and manufacture high holy outrage on the point" #perfectionism

All of which is designed to suppress the #left #vote and help #MAGA

You have been warned. Brace yourself

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20260915-russian-disinformation-campaign-sets-sights-on-us-midterms

#Datingapps are losing popularity due to the #emotionalexhaustion and #cynicism they foster. The abundance of potential partners leads to decision fatigue, shallow judgements, and a rejection mindset. This gamified approach to dating prioritises matches over meaningful connections, leaving many users questioning their effectiveness. https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/dating-apps-are-dying/?eicker.news #tech #news #ainews

@vicgrinberg

#vote

especially you american assholes

#fascism doesn't want you to vote

and, in your mindless #cynicism and loser #perfectionism, you give them exactly what they want

why?

fucking pathetic

of course you don't *only* vote

because this is a war, and a vote is just one small tactic on one small battlefield

but to ignore something so easy is just unfathomably stupid

because you think a vote is some holy thing that reflects on your soul?

😂

that's SO DUMB

it's just tactics

••⋅☾ #和歌 / #短歌 ☽⋅••

An elm tree swing
An orchid, romantic things☽⋅••
but cynics knock

Warmth shot before the dawn
A thing is just a thing

••⋅☾ #Tanka ☽⋅••

#Poetry #詩 #NMPoetry #VSSDaily 9/4 #Elm #DailyHaikuPrompt #Orchids #TankaThursday #Knock #Cynicism #Romance #Plushies #IsTheOrderARabbit #GochiUsa #HeckleAndJeckle #Crows #Summer #Haiga #俳画 #Photography #マストドン写真部 #写真 #UrbanPhotography #都市写真

💪😤

https://abc7ny.com/post/new-york-city-public-schools-banning-ai-use-middle-school-year/19778716/

"Mayor Zohran #Mamdani and other city officials announced a sweeping new policy Wednesday imposing a one-year ban on student use of generative #artificialIntelligence in #NewYorkCity #publicSchools from 2-K through 8th grade"

How did we get Mamdani?

People ignored the #DNC, didn't whine #cynicism and #perfectionism and not #vote, and put him there

We can have 100 Mamdanis across the #USA if more Americans follow this lead

#NYC #AI #Education

#epsteinparasiteclass #billionaires #billionaireclass #billionairesclub #oligarchy #elites #apathy #cynicism #centrism #HellPlanet #orwell1984 #OrwellianWarning #guillotine #guillotines #guillotinetime #guillotinethem #GuillotinesWork #BillionaireTax #eattherich #composttherich #SoulessBastards #uspolitics #totalitariancapitalism #totalitarianism

@passenger @johnzajac

attack the #democrats

the democrats fucking suck

but more importantly:

*what are you doing about it*

not voting or 3rd party in our shitty FPTP system doesn't work

i say we take over the dems

meaning what?

#ElSayed, #Mamdani

other people just attack the dems and… that's it

so they have what?

#cynicism, #perfectionism: pathetic loser bullshit

tacit or clueless support for MAGA by suppressing the left #vote

such fake leftists are just idiots or right wing trolls

✮ Forget It ✮

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#🚫Cynicism
#🚫Billionaire-GOP-lackeys
#🚫Quarter
#💯*)#$!^NAMEcalling

🌊🇺🇸🌊🇺🇸🌊🇺🇸🌊🇺🇸🌊🇺🇸🌊🇺🇸🌊🇺🇸🌊🇺🇸

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4u3hwe3p7oy3hoy3amlw7rp2/post/3msqoka3n7t2c

A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

The world oftener rewards the appearance of merit than merit itself.
 
[Le monde récompense plus souvent les apparences du mérite que le mérite même.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶166 (1665-1678) [tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #appearances #cynicism #facade #merit #praise #recognition #reward #virtue

@eryops @thisislieven @skeletor

despair is normal

but don't let it curdle into #cynicism

not because of noble reasons, but tactical failure:

when you become a cynic you accept the unacceptable

you aid malice

you become a willing abuse victim

don't

if not for your sake, then for those around you you care about, the principles you care about:

reject cynicism

and *my* reason:

fuck plutocrats and bigots!

use your disgust positively:

get angry!

reject self-destructive rot into cynicism

@thisislieven @skeletor

to find the silver lining:

large slow movements take time to gather momentum

but when they do they steamroll everything

i'm watching #ElSayed and #Mamdani here in the #USA and i am delighted:

people are waking up from their #perfectionism and #cynicism and figuring out they have to fucking participate, and not just sit on the sidelines and judge

so yes the wait is excrutiating

but relief is coming, as you say, and i also believe

@intothewestaway

thank you PeaceNick!

#ElSayed is a blaring radioactive red klaxon for the #Left:

we #vote, we win, we change the world

you don't vote, you stew in whiny #perfectionism and cringe #cynicism, you only aid #MAGA

after El Sayed, anyone still in pathetic psychological failure mode should be pilloried for their loser existence of helping #fascism in their inaction

people are getting it! 😃 they're voting! 😍

VOTE MOTHERFUCKERS

LET'S TAKE BACK THIS STUPID FUCKING COUNTRY

💪 😤 ✅

RE: https://mastodon.social/@benroyce/117040275439060545

UPDATE

this is an important race folks

a lot of people are watching

can the left take over the #Democrats?

#ElSayed currently ahead 52% to 44%

EARLY RESULTS

HE CAN STILL LOSE

as long as we #vote, we assure we end the spineless centrists

You vote right? right?

You don't just fucking whine #cynicism and #perfectionism and #helplessness and #entitlement online, right? right?

Better live results link:

https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/michigan-primary-results-us-senate/#Dem

(ht: @juliehuz )

#Michigan

@SCALETHEORY @Lazarou

your #pessimism is not our reality

if you know even a little of history, you know there's always a struggle. backsliding, wins, backsliding, wins, etc

always

and you fight

always

unfortunately in this world there are those like you who aid malice by giving the fuck up: #cynicism

but that's not the worst

you then plant your whiny useless ass in convos arguing hard for weakness, cowardice, acceptance of malice

no

fuck you

your spinelessness is not ours, loser

@[email protected] This has been a long, self-serving thread about how to survive the current AI mania while keeping your career, your mind, and your soul intact.

#AI #CorporateMania #Surviving #Thriving #Cynicism

A quotation from Ambrose Bierce

EQUAL, adj. As bad as something else.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Equal,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1884-05-24)

More about this quote: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/85176…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bierce #ambrocebierce #devilsdictionary # halfempty #pessimism #cynicism #equal #equality #sameness

Follow up:

https://mastodon.social/@benroyce/116709382859132554

" #India’s #education minister resigns amid #Cockroach #youth movement #protests"

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/dharmendra-pradhan-india-education-minister-resigns-cockroach-movement

Something everyone of every country needs to learn (many know, many don't):

You fight for something, you win

You sit there, in inert whiny #cynicism and fragile impotent #perfectionism: you aid malice in your #learnedHelplessness. You've been psychologically conditioned

Especially you, lazy entitled Americans

#CJP #CockroachJanataParty #Pradhan

Pluralistic: AI solipsists and AI cynics (24 Jul 2026)

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/24/supplemental-income/

Pluralistic: AI solipsists and AI cynics (24 Jul 2026)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/24/supplemental-income/

✮ Fueled ✮

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#ICE kills another person

This time in #Maine

😩😔

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/biddeford-maine-ice-investigation-fatal-shooting-rcna587279

#SusanCollin's office is swarmed with #protesters chanting "vote her out"

YES!

They get it!

This is how we fix it

This is why we're even in this predicament: people didn't vote

Fuck you and your fucking #perfectionism

Fuck you and your fucking #cynicism

You have blood on your hands. You are to blame for these deaths as much as #MAGA if you did not vote, do not vote

#VOTE you fucking whiny useless motherfuckers

"He has the most who is most content with the least." - Diogenes of Sinope (aprox. 412 BC to 323 BC)

Diogenes lived in Athens during the shift toward Hellenism. He rejected social conventions and material wealth, famously living in a ceramic jar to demonstrate true freedom through self-sufficiency.

Source: Diogenes Laërtius (compiled via Google Gemini)

#GreatThinkers #philosophy #cynicism #diogenes #freedom #history #wisdom

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

A mixture of gullibility and cynicism had been an outstanding characteristic of mob mentality before it became an everyday phenomenon of masses. In an ever-changing, incomprehensible, world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything is possible and that nothing was true. The mixture in itself was remarkable enough, because it spelled the end of the illusion that gullibility was a weakness of unsuspecting primitive souls and cynicism the vice of superior and refined minds.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 11 “The Totalitarian Movement,” sec. 2 (1951)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/41872/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hannaharendt #arendt #belief #cynicism #elitism #gullibility #mob #totalitarianism #truth

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 11 “The Totalitarian Movement,” sec. 2 (1951)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/41783/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hannaharendt #arendt #absurdity #belief #cognitivedissonance #cynicism #deceit #deception #lying #mistrust #propaganda #totalitarianism

#IToldYouSo #Vindicated #Cynicism #Predictable #MAGA #PedophileProtector #ThisIsWhatYouVotedFor

A quotation from John Quincy Adams

I have, and must have, confidence in the possible virtue of human nature; and although in entertaining this idea, a man must, and will sometimes, be disappointed, yet if it is coupled with a sound judgment and close observations, I believe he could make fewer great mistakes, than one whose principle is the universal rascality of the species.

John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
Letter (1809-06-22) to William Eustis

More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john-quincy/83…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnquincyadams #cynicism #goodfaith #goodpeople #humannature #knavery #misanthropy #rascal #vice #virtue

Because #cynicism is a self-imposed blindness: a #rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. #Cynics always say 'no.' But saying 'yes' begins things. Saying 'yes' is how things grow. -- #StephenColbert #Quotes #LifeLessons

The non-action bloc: resignation, cynicism, and the culture that keeps people powerless

https://hamishcampbell.com/the-non-action-bloc-resignation-cynicism-and-the-culture-that-keeps-people-powerless/

https://www.europesays.com/people/73121/ ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’ review: Authoritarianism by numbers, thinly #assayas #baranov #carlos #character #ColdLust #cynicism #Kremlin #NascentKleptocracy #power #Putin #review #rise #Russia #scene #VladimirPutin #wizard

https://www.europesays.com/people/58775/ At least 26 killed in Russian strikes across Ukraine as Zelenskyy denounces Moscow’s ‘cynicism’ #cynicism #Kramatorsk #kyiv #moscow #PatrioticParade #Russia #RussianStrike #Ukraine #VolodymyrZelenskyy

https://www.europesays.com/people/58326/ At least 26 killed in Russian strikes across Ukraine as Zelenskyy denounces Moscow’s ‘cynicism’ #cynicism #Kramatorsk #kyiv #moscow #PatrioticParade #Russia #RussianStrike #Ukraine #VolodymyrZelenskyy

Refuge

We all have so much power that we don’t use. And I think it’s because of cynicism, which is a toxic spiritual state. Cynicism is a refuge for cowards.

~ Cory Booker

slip:4a751.