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We love to hate cynics because while their critical and cynical analysis of the world is often spot on, it’s hard not to think of them as unhelpful and judgmental. But is there anything philosophically productive about being cynical? Today we’re going to try to get to the bottom of this by asking if cynicism is a relevant philosophy or just a really good excuse to be a troll. We’re also going to consider cynicism’s relationship to the hottest philosophy trend on YouTube, Stoicism.
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Now let’s get back to learning about cynicism. Let’s start thinking about cynicism via its philosophical cousin, Stoicism, or at least though as it’s explained by writer Ryan Holiday, a former American Apparel marketing whiz and someone who’s largely responsible for the current popularity of Stoicism amongst Millennials and Gen Z. Holiday argues that cynicism is destructive because it tears down ideas without offering up replacements. For Holiday, cynics don’t really care about anything and when you only criticize, you only tear down and you don’t replace. What are people left with? To him, this makes it comparable to nihilism, which technically isn’t a bad thing.