No matter what you bought or how much you paid for it, you can always turn around and sell it to someone dumber, and except for one poor soul, there’s always someone dumber. By buying your dumb thing from you, the dumber person – the greater fool – is validating your decision to buy it from someone else, and therefore, just as you validate your upline, your downline validates you. (There’s a human caterpillar joke in here somewhere, but I’m not gonna touch it.) It’s only natural that we would seek this sort of approval because juveniles can only see themselves in the reflection they cast in the eyes of others. By not buying your dumb thing, the next dumbest person is invalidating you – reflecting a version of you that contradicts your self-image – so it’s only natural that you’d want to tie them to a stake and set them on fire.