this post was submitted on 12 May 2022
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As danoss hinted at, what exactly do you mean by cynicism?
For the jaded belief that most people are inherently (for lack of a better word) anti-social and selfish, etc., then I'd point to real counter-examples, especially those occurring in times of fatal struggle like the Christmas truces in WWI.
People generally have real-world reasons for doing things, beyond some universal morals or good or evil. The same person in a different environment will usually act differently. If you live in an environment that motivates people to betray trust and cheat in order to thrive, then the cynics seem sane most of the time. Take them into an environment where people trust each other and everyone's basic needs are met, and the cynics just seem unjustified much of the time.
PS: a fun basic demonstrative activity about trust in society from a game theory perspective: https://ncase.me/trust/ (animations run slow with Tor/Firefox's resistFingerprinting setting, for those who enabled it)