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The crab's "intentions" are immaterial!

Like, if a human meerely intends "to grab on anything they can to get out of the [human]-pile", & they're quite rude/destructive while doing so, they're still rude/destructive regardless of how sympathetic we may judge their intentions to be.



Certainly. The linked reference argues otherwise though:

>is a phrase that describes a way of thinking best described by the phrase "if I can't have it, neither can you."

>Individually, the crabs could easily escape from the pot, but instead, they grab at each other in a useless "king of the hill" competition which prevents any from escaping and ensures their collective demise.




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