Meh, it depends on where you live, tbh..I'll admit, I'm cynical because of my current living situation, and no matter how positive you try to be and trust people, You get taken advantage of.

I grew up in a small town in the country, and now I live in a fairly large city.. Some people will take your kindness for weakness and eat you alive. I learned that the hard way, lol..

I visit my cousins in the country every so often, and their friends always think I'm pretty "cold" or "mean" because I'm not outgoing as I used to be, and I'm pretty quiet. When in all reality, I'm just not used to people who aren't trying to take advantage of you all the time. There are some sharks in my city. It's unreal how convincing some people can be when they try to use you for self gain.

For example, I'll ask people sometimes if they need help with a random task just to genuinely help (changing a tire for example). The first thing out of their mouth is, "well what do you get out of it?" Or, "I don't have anything to give you."

When I was just helping for the sake of helping for no self gain, period. That's how I was raised.

Back in the country where I grew up, if you help someone, the first thing out of their mouth would be, "Thanks! What's your name?", etc..

On the same note, being too optimistic & naive is sadder to me, because that will get you killed. As I stated earlier, "I learned the hard way", after being robbed a few times. I got set up once by a supposed "friend". Shit like this never happened back home.

I think it's harder to get taken advantage of questioning everyone's motives, rather than trusting in them and thinking everyone has good intent like a Disney cartoon.

If anything, being cynical is just a result of my current environment. But, it has its uses. Being cynical doesn't make me a bad person, I'm just extremely skeptical of people's intentions after certain experiences.

Being judgmental of other people's attitudes when they don't hurt you is what's really sad, imo.

We all walk diff paths and have diff coping mechanisms best suited for our own survival.