This is a stub for a potential future blogpost (or sticker or t-shirt) because I have found myself describing my current mindset as ‘cynical optimism’ multiple times in recent days/weeks.

Dom and the Futuregov crew were talking about being ‘Militant Optimists’ as far back as 2017 ^{(this was a typo – Dom was definitely using the phrase as early as 2011 and the t-shirts came a little later)} I think and this article during Covid captures some of that thinking/feeling in a broader sense.

A cynical optimist(IMHO) is someone who has some battle scars and lived through some broken promises but despite everything once again finds themselves excited with the possibility of change and progress. Just with a little less energy and a lot more sarcasm than previous adventures. It feels like the most English version of optimism possible.

Or something…