Cynicists?

Is anyone else here just a complete cynicist? Similar to Matthew McConaughey in True Detective....

As in you take everything anyone says as untruth and have to look into them as a person?

I can honestly say I may have met 4 people in my entire 43 year life that I believe are genuine, true, and completely transparent people.

I feel like it should be a larger number.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

A very good question.

I’d like to be optimistic and say it’s 50/50.

The true problem is, when many of the ‘good’ people, encounter the severity of an extremely negative person — they become guarded. In essence, becoming many of the negative attributes, they are trying to guard themselves from.

It’s truly a viscous cycle.

I trust my wife, my daughter and my father. After that is it trust, but verify.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

I can honestly say I may have met 4 people in my entire 43 year life that I believe are genuine, true, and completely transparent people.

I'm unsure what you mean by a "genuine, true, and completely transparent" person. What is a "genuine" person? What is a "transparent" person. Am I not "genuine"? What would a non-genuine person look like? A turtle? And how about "true"? What does a non-true person look like? An alien? And lastly: "Transparent." Do I owe you transparency? I don't think I do.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

It's a hard fact, Vasa .. but age gives us more experience.
With various degrees of negative, positive and neutral
results. I with guilt confess the negative experiences stick
better, and the damage is retained.
An old friend once told me during one of our living together
bouts:"It's impossible for the human brain to remember pain."
I replied,"Monitor that. You may be shopping around for more."
EDIT: Bumped for sure. And trust is definitely easier around
here with the track records...

a reply to: Vasa Croe

A modern day cynic, or a classical cynic?

I think I have sometimes bridged the two.

Cynical

believing that people are motivated by self-interest; distrustful of human sincerity or integrity.

(Def by Google)
Yep , that's me.

I must be vain as well :
"I'm so vain
I probably think this thread is about me
I'm so vain (I'm so vain)
I'll bet I think this thread is about me"

Sung to the tune of Carly Simon's "You're so vain"

a reply to: Gothmog

It would also be interesting to know how many people are cynical by nature versus how many are cynical due to past negative experience. If the latter, surely it is hard wired into many creatures, something learnt so as to not get burnt again.

I'd say the average person is pretty trusting to the point of gulllibility. Just think how many people will tell you straight faced that, yes, it must be true because I saw it on the news, on facebook, etc. Perhaps they are trusting of the system but still out for number 1.

I'm pretty cynical. Something else to consider is people's interface with others... few people have ever trusted me and I feel trustworthy and ethical. 100%. Then in the last few years I discovered that most people "read" other's eyes and that eye contact is required for "trust". I've always been more like a dog in that you don't look people in the eye as it's personal and only used when up against a challenge. This learning has made me wonder if I am a little autistic and could explain the weird vicious circle of not being trusting, because others don't trust. Kind of rambling here but I think individuals are all wired so differently that this would be hard to get stats on.

I'm pretty misanthropic, so cynicism kind of goes without saying.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
Is anyone else here just a complete cynicist? Similar to Matthew McConaughey in True Detective....

As in you take everything anyone says as untruth and have to look into them as a person?

I can honestly say I may have met 4 people in my entire 43 year life that I believe are genuine, true, and completely transparent people.

I feel like it should be a larger number.

I'm a little older than you and wholeheartedly agree.
I think I've met about 6, and have always strived to be like them. It's hard work (due to poor parenting, and yes I'm late to the party 😁) but totally worth it. 👍🏼

originally posted by: schuyler

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

I can honestly say I may have met 4 people in my entire 43 year life that I believe are genuine, true, and completely transparent people.

I'm unsure what you mean by a "genuine, true, and completely transparent" person. What is a "genuine" person? What is a "transparent" person. Am I not "genuine"? What would a non-genuine person look like? A turtle? And how about "true"? What does a non-true person look like? An alien? And lastly: "Transparent." Do I owe you transparency? I don't think I do.

No need over complicate it, you just 'know' when you've met one.