"Gullible cynicism": the practice of bending over backwards to disbelieve the generally accepted explanation for anything whatsoever, while eagerly accepting absurdly implausible conspiracy theories instead.

Gullible cynicism appeared long before there were modern disinformation campaigns. Nowadays it has spread beyond the US — but gullible cynicism sure helps disinformation campaigns succeed.

The UK spy organization supports the plan to make all UK snoop-phones check everything people send through them.

They would like this, wouldn't they?

Ukraine wants to put Putin and his high officials on trial for war crimes.

Threatening to prosecute Putin would be a mistake, if there is any chance of actually bringing him to justice, because he would continue the war simply to prevent that, even if he has no chance of actually winning.

However, if there is no chance of bringing him to justice, the trial is just a futile display of anger.

The new "interim" president of Sri Lanka, chosen by parliament, arrested hundreds of encamped protesters shortly before they were going to leave.

*House panel says Trump "chose not to act" during attack on US Capitol.*

That is a shocking understatement. The corrupter did much worse than remain inactive during the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol. He continued to egg his followers on, as they rioted, for more than an hour.

At this point, I think the crucial question is, is there any law which criminalizes these actions? There ought to be, but is there any?