Oh, rubbish. "Cynicism" and "Credulousness" are not opposites.
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Replying to @StevenBrust
there are competing definitions but they’re at least opposed if not precise opposites in the one i subscribe to
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Replying to @chaosprime @StevenBrust
there's a difference between skepticism, demanding evidence for claims, and cynicism, a spiritually corrosive immunity to passion in any endeavor. a substantial difference.
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Replying to @palecur @StevenBrust
that isn’t what i mean by cynicism and sounds suspiciously like pessimism. by cynicism i mean distrust of people’s nominal motives.
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Replying to @chaosprime @StevenBrust
that is, uh, a fairly bespoke definition of the term
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Replying to @palecur @StevenBrust
i consider it quite originalist actually
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Replying to @palecur @StevenBrust
what even is this late-coming revisionist “cynicism” that everybody hates and nobody likes, anyway? it never seems defined beyond “blob of stuff i don’t like”
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Replying to @chaosprime @StevenBrust
it's a fairly clear definition: distrust of motives leading to insincerity in all aspects of life, nothing enjoyed for its own qualities but only for the way it points out the failures in something else, nothing taken at face value leading to nothing being valued at all.
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it's the easy, jaded teenager's refutation of altruism writ large: you enjoyed helping, so you didn't do it for its own sake but only for the reward of the enjoyment, therefore nobody's motivations for helping are pure and thus one is excused from carrying or helping.
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i mean i guess one could go there, and stop there, but if one is appropriately cynical about one’s own motivations one would recognize that stopping there is self-serving
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