Arms races waste utility. If you defect in the Prisoner’s Dilemma, then no matter what your opponent does, the sum of your and your opponent’s utilities will be lower than if you’d cooperated. (For example, if the payoffs are (1,1) (3,0) (0,3) (2,2), then the sum goes either from 4 to 3, or from 3 to 2.) You can view cooperators as those who create value, though not necessarily for themselves, and defectors as those who destroy value, though not for themselves. So it might make sense to consider the commons sacred, and scold those who abuse it.
Promoting defection also makes sense in situations where being seen to promote defection rather than cooperation earns me status within the community (e.g., it seems cool, or seems clever, or seems contrarian, or what-have-you), and I believe that promoting defection does not significantly affect utility otherwise (e.g., I don’t believe that anyone I care about might ever be in a prisoner’s dilemma where the results actually depend in any way on the stuff I promote now).
Arms races waste utility. If you defect in the Prisoner’s Dilemma, then no matter what your opponent does, the sum of your and your opponent’s utilities will be lower than if you’d cooperated. (For example, if the payoffs are (1,1) (3,0) (0,3) (2,2), then the sum goes either from 4 to 3, or from 3 to 2.) You can view cooperators as those who create value, though not necessarily for themselves, and defectors as those who destroy value, though not for themselves. So it might make sense to consider the commons sacred, and scold those who abuse it.
Promoting defection also makes sense in situations where being seen to promote defection rather than cooperation earns me status within the community (e.g., it seems cool, or seems clever, or seems contrarian, or what-have-you), and I believe that promoting defection does not significantly affect utility otherwise (e.g., I don’t believe that anyone I care about might ever be in a prisoner’s dilemma where the results actually depend in any way on the stuff I promote now).