Their cynicism is cope. They are witnessing their own decline every single day.
It's honestly so sad. On the other side of the globe there is Tesla [1]. Even if you don't like the idea of cars, this is the pinnacle of a utilitarian product. Also one of the most popular vehicles (globally) as opposed to the (incorrect) example used in the thread.
Modern cars are great for the most parts. More comfortable, more safe, more autonomous, bigger, better and faster. Of course not all cars are created equal.
Cars are a resilient mode of transport. Even if road maintenance stops for 30 years due to some kind of crisis, a society with cars will be way more functional than one that was solely reliant on a centralized transportation system. And this is not an unrealistic scenario, people are just used to the last 80 years of peace due to rapid economic growth and globalization.
there is no plan or vision, integration strategy, mechanism to control migrant influx, no truthful evaluation of mass migration over last 10 years. just millions of migrants abusing welfare, deteriorating trust and eroding social cohesion. it's depressing, when you go to the city and have to look hard for another familiar face. it's not subtle and unfortunately it's not just all in my head.
as a german i can confirm that this happens very frequently (way more often than you think). usually it's politicians who file police reports which get prosecuted most of the time. i believe the last government (left wing coalition) built up massive infrastructure to prosecute such offenses. politicians in germany get special protection in terms of speech laws. §188 StGB allows the state to prosecute you severely, even without a private complaint from the politician in some cases.