Stuff White People Like Yuppies put status, in a never-ending competition for careers, mates, etc. like and episode of Seinfeld that never ends, above the lives of their fellow citizens or even their own.

Lost in this is that competition for status among a fairly inbred group of yuppies, over-rides everything else. Your immediate short term romantic, career, and life prospects all rely on a share need to distinguish yourself from the masses.

Hence Puffy Shirts on one end and nuked out American cities on the other. Both because of concerns for short-term status over long term safety.

ETA: note the arguments of Obama, Benjy, and ASH: “I am morally superior and therefore higher status than you.”