I've decided to revive this popular interactive "graffiti board" from the original Cynic's Sanctuary -- with a few changes. The old board fell prey to an assortment of trolls and pranksters. Now you have to enter your name (or pseudonym) and e-mail address before you can add a comment. (They also ask for your web URL, but that's strictly optional.)
Best of all, I can delete comments I find obnoxious, irrelevant or otherwise displeasing to my cynical sensibilities. (Mwa-ha-ha-ha!)
The old board was a kind of primitive precursor to Twitter: you had to confine your message to 140 characters. Now the sky's the limit. So you see, it's not all bad news. And don't worry... nobody will be able to see your e-mail address.
All right, what are YOU cynical about?
Testing...
"Job creators" who don't create jobs
Our "trickle-up" economy
Congressmen who take money from lobbyists, then BECOME lobbyists when they leave office so they can bribe other Congressmen
People who think conniving Congressmen are cynics, when in fact they're the kind of people who turn the rest of us into cynics
Posted by: Rick | April 25, 2013 at 01:25 PM
Aren't you cynical about ANYTHING? Even cynical websites? If I were young and just starting out in today's world, I'd be even more cynical than Ambrose Bierce. Let's put some well-earned grievances up on this page!
Posted by: Rick | May 08, 2013 at 12:26 PM
Alright, let's give this a shot.
The claim that America is "intolerant of Christians." It may be relevant to note that said grievance was delivered by a Christian leader to the Vice President of the United States. (If something smells fishy, read that second sentence a couple more times). If you have the opportunity to present your complaint to the VP, I think your religion is in no immediate danger.
Posted by: Mitchell | June 04, 2013 at 10:22 PM
I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE
SOMEBODIES WATCHIN ME
Ain'T GOT NO
PRIVACY ?
Posted by: Mr PSI | June 12, 2013 at 05:40 PM
CCTV
Posted by: In the Toilet | June 15, 2013 at 04:44 AM
The South African tribal system.
Posted by: Babel | June 28, 2013 at 06:50 AM
it's a gas, gas, gas
Posted by: Chinese Lantern | July 01, 2013 at 12:55 PM
Everything, idealism, left wing, right wing, conservatives, liberals, democrats, republicans, activists, PETA, the environment, politics, Political correctness, the economy, corporations, lawyers, the system of law, the education system,environmentalists,celebrities,
religion,the EPA,political correctness, gay rights, religiou rights, secret societies you name it.
Posted by: Ajit Manilal | August 04, 2013 at 07:10 AM
Everything, idealism, left wing, right wing, conservatives, liberals, democrats, republicans, activists, PETA, the environment, politics, Political correctness, the economy, corporations, lawyers, the system of law, the education system,environmentalists,celebrities, religion,the EPA,political correctness, gay rights, religious rights, secret societies you name it.
Posted by: Ajit Manilal | August 04, 2013 at 07:12 AM
I once read the following while browsing a library book but forgotten the author. I think he may have been Scandinavian but the quote has stayed with me:-
Never kick a man when he's down, just walk on by.
Posted by: Rainbowwolf | August 11, 2013 at 10:42 AM
Love. It just doesn't exist anymore. People killed it.
Posted by: someone | October 13, 2013 at 07:22 AM
I am cynical about a college education I mean seriously. You graduate and can not find a job thus defeating the purpose of college.What is the point of a degree if it is no longer a safety net.
The other thing I am cynical about is relationships.Better it is to be single then in a relationship in chains.
Posted by: Daniel Cesar | October 26, 2013 at 12:16 AM
Personal growth sounds like a damn tumor.
Posted by: Daniel Cesar | December 08, 2013 at 09:34 PM
A huge number of things.For example, I think elections are just a formality. If it really could change anything, it would have been banned a long time ago.
We also have a law that forbids hate and/or promoting of any and all goups of people. That would make it completelly legal for psychotic killers or nazis to do their thing on the streets.
Love is nothing but an increased ammount of tolerance for a sufficiently compatible sex partner (you could put something like that to you dictionary)...
And I could go on for hours...
Posted by: Executor | December 20, 2013 at 07:26 AM
Cynics.
Just joking, but any strength taken to excess becomes a weakness.
We have much to be cynical about and I wonder to what extent the growth in audiences for comedians reflects this. People are amused, but I wonder if the airtime given to cynicism is also disempowering.
Posted by: Paul Burns | March 02, 2014 at 07:32 AM
The general moral standing that all human life is valuable and must be preserved at all costs. This backwards thinking will cause us to breed ourselves into oblivion; an ever increasing, ever consuming population that will slowly devour everything in its path and collapse under its own bloated weight, taking the rest of the planet with it.
We selfishly believe that we hold a privileged position within the ecosystem/biosphere, so we continually invade other habitats and clear our collective conscience with environmental activists. We have forgotten that we are just a small part of a vast, magnificent system and arrogantly regard ourselves as not only a separate system, but one that must dominate all others, forcing them to bend to its tyrannical will. We don't even put our own corpses back into the world; we either seal them away and hoard them in cemeteries, or burn them to ashes and remove them from existence before anyone or anything else can.
Posted by: SisyphusWithaSmile | April 01, 2014 at 07:37 PM
I'm cynical about...
1. Those who have a cynical view on the concept of love. It seems that bitter viewpoint is more out of angst than true cynicism,"It didn't go my way. Therefore, I shall apply my view to the whole world (because obviously my 3 or 4 failed relationships equates to the millions of other relationships on the planet, right?)!"
2. Those who have an unrealistic attached-at-the-hip view on love. When I hear, "This is my other half," or "That special someone just for me," or "God made our match in heaven back in the preexistence", or "Love is unconditional" I can feel my eyes roll. Why do you want to only be half a person? Why not two completely whole people who decided they wanted to synchronize their lives together? Why do people believe that out of the billions of people that live on this planet that they have ONLY ONE compatible match; it's ludicrous. We, as human beings, have the choice to be with whomever we wish to as long as they have an equally reciprocal desire to be with us. Our love life is not fated or somewhere up in the stars. We can choose to extend ourselves and put someone else's personal growth/spiritual needs/psychological development before our own regardless of our emotional state. But a choice, and at times a difficult choice, it still is. Just as we all have the choice to withdraw love from conditions being broken (and honestly, who doesn't have certain limits placed on their relationship?) If someone cheated on me, stole from me, or beat me to a pulp, I would get the fuck out of there and cut off all emotional ties. Based on what I've seen in news reports, a personal stay in a women's shelter, and lots of anecdotal stories, most people also place 'abandon ship!' limits on their intimate relationship(s).
3. I am cynical about the current state of money, more specifically the economy. Dollar bills (whether a Washington or a Franklin) have no real value of their own - they are just green paper. It is the number printed on it that gives us 'value' - a value only conceived by our minds. And yet we're told that simply printing out more cash backfires. Except, American dollars are backed by the value of gold. And how do you put imaginary numbers equivalent to the worth of gold? Yesterday you said it was worth $5. Today it is worth $10. I smell bull shit with this one...
4. Religion. It's the easy answer to people who don't want to come up with logical decisions and unverified personal gnosis from deep introspection. They just want to be told what to do and believe in and contribute to and being treated like sheep.
5. God. I don't believe in the Abrahamaic reigions' concept of God. Strangely, I have a deep affinity for the Christian Valentinian heretical gnostic version of God. Perhaps because it is taught to look at the world knowing Earth is an imperfect copy of a perfect reality (your idealism) and to still appreciate and admire the beauty it does contain.
Posted by: Stacy R | April 24, 2014 at 03:47 AM
This world is just as dumb and evil as dumb and evil can get. How can you not become cynical after living on Earth and having to deal with imbiciles for so long? I was a happy-go-lucky person until I had my own feet snatched from under me.
Posted by: Raven | July 21, 2014 at 11:54 AM
Maybe I am smarter than everyone.
Posted by: callous chuck | August 11, 2014 at 02:36 AM
That the entire human race will doom itself to extinction due to our own stupidity.
Posted by: callous chuck | August 15, 2014 at 11:28 PM
I'm cynical of political correctness (it's all agenda based nonsense). I'm super cynical about all those stupid "beautiful life and love sayings" plastered all over any internet social site.
That's my start! And I think I've found my new home.. and that's what I call love. Thanks.
Posted by: ann hadenough | January 13, 2015 at 09:55 AM
I am cynical about the concept of rules and order and moral absolutes.Who is to say what is wrong or wrong look we kill others in war and see it is for the common good. I also see Christians some of the most hypocritical and vile people who in the past have used religion to justify violence.I despise religion as a societal disease. Mother earth is shaking us off like a bad case of the fleas.We are overdue for a plague.
Posted by: DC | July 16, 2015 at 11:40 AM
About best friendships or friendships in general I used to have best friends before they wronged me plus I just made new friends invited them to my birthday party and they never came or even apologized for not showing up
Posted by: Robert | November 26, 2015 at 09:23 PM
There is no freedom in the west, freedom is a sham, imagine if you went on facebook using your own name and you said bad things about your company or boss, even if they had good points to make, would you still have a job? of course not, im sure same happens in commie china? and they pretend there is freedom in the west,lol
Posted by: jake | February 29, 2016 at 03:20 AM
The justice system in Australia is a joke, the law is always on the side of the criminal not the victim, so many times criminals with long history of crime, keep getting bail, time after time, its a total joke, judges are leftie scum, where are all the hard line judges? not in Australia, so many times a criminal gets eg.1yr jail and than immediately gets a suspended sentence, which means GET AWAY WITH IT SCOTT FREE, WHY IS AUSTRALIA LIKE THIS? so many times criminals get 2mths in jail for bashing someone and leaving them a vegetable, is that fair? NO, there was a case in Australia that an assault was recorded on camera, but the scum judge said the evidence is INADMISSABLE, what a joke
Posted by: pete | February 29, 2016 at 03:25 AM