It seems the worst thing a reporter or commentator can be accused of in certain circles is not inaccuracy or unfairness, but credulousness. To be taken in, fooled and bamboozled that, to many of us, is the most humiliating of all possibilities. A cynic is one who approaches the world with a scornful and bitterly mocking attitude. Someone who assumes that all people are motivated by selfishness and that institutions are inept at best, corrupt at worst. Classical cynicism derived from a sect of philosophers in ancient Greece founded by Antisthenes, a pupil of Socrates.
Cynicism sows suspicion and distrust, demeans hope and debases idealism.
Not content to describe impacts and effects, the cynic tends to ascribe motives, which are almost universally shallow or ignoble. That a politician s personal motives might also coincide with the public good is a logical impossibility to the cynic. And the very idea that some politicians, officials and policy makers might on occasion act out of principle is, to the cynic, a joke. The distance he puts between himself and others saves time, money, anxiety and a great deal of moral indignation. Some cynical political writing is easy to spot.