Protestors stage a sit-in on Broadway near Wall Street called Flood Wall Street, hoping to draw awareness to the connection between corporations and climate change.

The Problem with Naïve Cynicism

The Brian Lehrer Show | May 2, 2016

Rebecca Solnit, author and contributing editor at Harper's magazine, talks about her new article, "The Habits of Highly Cynical People," and how naïve cynicism among Americans has led to complacency in lieu of activism.

One form of this cynicism, Solnit said, involves people on the fringes of mainstream media who doubt their ability to help bring about change, which spares them the hard work involved.

This illustrates the two kinds of activists in the world, according to Solnit. There are the ones who work hard toward reform, and the ones who throw up their arms and call anything less than 100% reform a loss.

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