Negative sum reasoning

 Negative sum thinking (if it hurts the other guy more than me, I'm fine with that) is a classic sign of societal collapse. The Roman empire's collapse is the classic case. Politicians were fine with a legion's destruction as long as it hurt their political foes more than it hurt them.

Politics is now like this.  Who cares if packing the supreme court will hurt trust in the rule of law and it hurts our political future - if it hurts the other party more than us...  Trump was famous for this.

Now we're seeing this in more and more places.

One such user, a Redditor who goes by the name Space-Peanut, has a very personal reason for tossing their match onto the pyre.

Read below (emphasis ours):

This is for you, Dad.

I remember when the housing collapse sent a torpedo through my family. My father's concrete company collapsed almost overnight. My father lost his home. My uncle lost his home. I remember my brother helping my father count pocket change on our kitchen table. That was all the money he had left in the world. While this was happening in my home, I saw hedge funders literally drinking champagne as they looked down on the Occupy Wall Street protestors. I will never forget that.

My Father never recovered from that blow. He fell deeper and deeper into alcoholism and exists now as a shell of his former self, waiting for death.

This is all the money I have and I'd rather lose it all than give them what they need to destroy me. Taking money from me won't hurt me, because i don't value it at all. I'll burn it all down just to spite them.

This is for you, Dad.