>>12754625This puzzles me a lot. I think a lot of it has to do with the idea of believing they can control that which is uncontrollable. It's like a "shoot the messenger" or an "ignorance is bliss" mentalility. Those phrases are common sayings because people often confuse the nonexistence of something with lacking knowledge of it. But I don't think the people you described are doing it intentionally. It's more like an optical illusion that they think is real.
I'm not sure if it's status they're after (at least for like 70% of them) so much as it's to feel like their objectively detrimental decisions are justified because of external factors which (ironically) they want to sieze control of. So it's a inherent contradiction really: to say you're where you are because of things that are outside of your control so you try to seize control of what's outside of your control.
But when you operate like that it's like a debilitating gambling addiction. Instead of accepting that the math is outside of your control, you think it's the cards' fault until you're ruined. Again, this way of think is meant to justify your poor choice of gambling all your money away in the first place.
