The Cynical Times is not affiliated with any political or economic system. We simply believe that government exists to serve voters and that democracy works best when they have the information to act in their own self interest.

We are patriotic Americans who believe the needs of the many are no longer being advanced by this nation's self-appointed political aristocracy. Our staff is comprised of middle-class Americans, each of whom is a veteran in their own professional field.

Right now, none of us are being paid. In fact, none of us have received a dime since we began organizing The Cynical Times on May 31, 2011. We reached into our own pockets to get this website started, and continue to do so today.

We hope to generate enough revenue from donations and grants in the future to cover those costs and pay our staff. We will not be generating any profit for any investor. Instead, every dime of revenue will go right back into building a lasting news institution for the middle class.

How We Are Viewed

We've been accused of being Republicans by the Democrats, Socialists by the Republicans, anti-union by the Socialists, pro-union by Big Business, and anti-rich by the rich, but no one has ever accused us of being late for dinner.

The truth is that The Cynical Times cares passionately about the greater good of the United States of America, which we believe is advanced by championing the best interests of its wage-earners. Not by investors, not by CEOs looking to foster profit growth by any means necessary, not by the predatory lenders of Wall Street, not by crooked unions that are run like family-owned businesses and dominated by older workers, and not by the political machines and their self-serving members. We view all of those groups as parasites.

If you try to enrich yourself by sucking the life out of working Americans, The Cynical Times is your enemy. We will seek to expose you to public scrutiny.

Lately, we've also been accused of being part of Occupy Wall Street due to our even-handed treatment of this pro-democracy movement. We embrace many of the same positions and viewpoints as the Occupy movement, but we are not part of it.

Our job as journalists is to remain outside this organization so that we can serve our readers and set a professional example for other media organizations, from the outside looking in. We're doing that.

Why You Should Join Us

If self-preservation is an instinct that you possess, then you should join us, because the current climate of class warfare, eroding civil liberties, consumer exploitation, rampant nepotism, and the blending of journalism and politics is not going to have a happy ending for the United States if it's allowed to continue.

America is in distress and we're trying to be part of the solution as patriotic Americans. We need your help and support to do that.

If you suspect that you and your fellow Americans are being systematically misled by monopolistic business interests that have placed short-term profit growth ahead of the best interests of this nation, you should join us.

If you suspect that parts of our government have been hijacked by business and political elites who see themselves as citizens of the world, instead of Americans, you should join us.

If you suspect that working Americans are being misled and marginalized by political machines that have undermined representative democracy by circumventing term limits and political donation caps, you should join us.

If you suspect excessive deregulation in the absence of truly free markets has given birth to new business cartels, in industries like cable television and airlines, which exploit consumers and stifle true competition, you should join us.

If you suspect those business cartels engage  in legalized collusion by emulating each other's prices, you should join us.

If you suspect that wealth and societal benefits have been siphoned from the American middle class since 1981, and replaced by a progressively heavier share of national burdens, you should join us.

If you suspect our hijacked federal, state and local governments are shifting more of the cost of government to middle-class families by raising fees - like road tolls and traffic fines - instead of taxes, you should join us.

If you suspect that the mainstream media is providing you with biased economic reporting to make things look better than they really are, you should join us.

If you suspect that our medical system is far from the greatest in the world, and encourages needless procedures for the elderly while neglecting the uninsured, you should join us.

If you oppose nepotism and wish to see the children of the 1% pay their dues, just like everybody else, you should join us.

If you believe top executives should lead by example, instead of exempting themselves from the same rules of workplace conduct that apply to other employees, you should join us.

If you suspect that Reality TV is not real and its so-called stars are not worthy of your adulation, you should join us.

If you believe that law, medicine and the news industry were meant to be nonprofit, you should join us.

If you think news organizations should have to disclose advertising revenue from political parties and candidates, every time they publish a story about them, you should join us.

If you think the truth should not be for sale to the highest bidder, and believe in the concept of inherent truth, you should join us.

If you believe that organized religion should be about helping the needy, and not about legitimizing political machines that exploit their fellow man, you should join us.

If you think working Americans should have the freedom of speech to say just about whatever the hell they like outside of work, without being fired or disciplined, you should join us.

If you're a patriotic American, mad as hell and ready to ante up to make this country work for the many again, instead of the few, you should join us.

How You Can Support Us
 
Financial donations are always nice, but you don't have to have a fat wallet to aid us. You can also help us by subscribing to the site, sharing our stories with your friends via Facebook, retweeting our announcements, and sending us your original photos, stories and/or illustrations for use on the site. You can also share story tips and revealing documents with us.

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The Cynical Times surpassed 20,000 monthly visitors in its eighth month of publication in January 2012 and secured a Google Page Rank of 1. This has been achieved entirely via word-of-mouth. We have yet to spend a dollar on advertising or marketing.