I think the word "cynical" has acquired some fairly negative connotations as of late. Overall, I think being cynical is a good thing. I think that we should neither believe nor trust everything and everyone that happens to pop up in our lives.

There are a lot of falsehoods and untrustworthy persons out there. No, not everything and everyone, but it is perhaps naive to think otherwise.

In its essence cynicism is not a negative view of the world, but IMO a evidence- based, realistic one.

It allows for a deliberate and thoughtful assessment of what's around us.

Like most things, however, cynicism, in the extreme, can undermine happiness because it can certainly lead to exclusion and isolation.