[paisawalla]

when people say "it's rational" they're invoking this feature of rationality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounded_rationality

in other words, if you see behavior in others that doesn't seem reasonable, there's two possibilities:

1. it makes sense to the subject, using the axioms they're reasoning from, which they've chosen because they have a stake in the outcome

2. an uninvolved, anonymous commenter on the internet knows -- better than the subject -- what's best for them

It's not always the case that (1) is correct, but it's the better prior than (2). And this fact being a downvote magnet here doesn't change that.