Past the LOL of today's troll, I wonder about some people.

Suppose I walk up to somebody and spit in their face.
For some strange reason, they kick my ass.
Then I run around screaming that mean guy kicked my ass.

Now if I'm you, then I'm ROFL at me in that situation

But then I walk up to the "mean guy"...and spit in his face again.

Do you still laugh at my antics, or do you wonder about my sanity?

Well, what if I told you I'm spitting in that guy's face to prove a point?

Would it matter? Would it matter sometimes?

I've warned about the mental health problems associated with advancing Information War, or conspiracy theory, depending on who you talk to ;> Here, here, and here.

When you decide that you are "dispensing wisdom and truth" to the "masses", and then they don't agree with you, even on inconsequential points, you get angry with them.

Angry people can do self-destructive things; maybe not even angry, but emotionally charged enough that something has to be done. Sometimes, that something results of the destruction of the person doing them...the martyr.

What is a martyr?

Wiki says

A martyr is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, refusing to renounce, or refusing to advocate a belief or cause as demanded by an external party.

We have over the course of history seen a variety of martyrs

• Religion - Jesus Christ and many of the saints, the Zealots at Masada, etc
• Politics - Socrates
• Military - Natahn Hale, the kamikaze
• Science - Giordano Bruno

The Conversation adds a little oomph to the definition of a martyr

Martyr stories are also marked by personal quests, violence, institutional execution, and dramatic final actions that heroically demonstrate a commitment to a cause with disregard for one’s own life
The swashbuckling tale of John Brown – and why martyrs and madmen have much in common

But is everyone who destroys themselves a hero?

Image Source -The Conversation

The title of that last article, again?
The swashbuckling tale of John Brown – and why martyrs and madmen have much in common

hmmmmmmmmmm

Wiki has something to say about the martyr complex

In psychology a person who has a martyr complex, sometimes associated with the term victim complex, desires the feeling of being a martyr for his/her own sake, seeking out suffering or persecution because it either feeds a psychological need, or a desire to avoid responsibility.

...and...

The desire for martyrdom is sometimes considered a form of masochism.

Psychology has noted the self-destructive urge in many for at least a century.

Such people are prone to have a strong but perverted moral sense, the dictates of which they follow regardless of consequences thinking they are martyrs for conscience sake.
THE PREVENTION OF INSANITY AND DEGENERACY, By CHARLES W. BURR, M. D., American Journal of Insanity, JAN 1918

John Brown seemed to desire his own end more than he did an effective resolution of slavery

I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose

Let's take another look at the victim complex

Victim mentality is an acquired personality trait in which a person tends to recognize themselves as a victim of the negative actions of others, and to behave as if this were the case in the face of contrary evidence of such circumstances.
/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victim_mentality

That temporary state of self-pity, however, is a drop in the bucket compared to what happens when we are dealing with someone with a full-blown Victim identity. A person with a Victim identity is someone who has identified with whatever crises, traumas, illnesses or other difficulties have occurred in their lives, particularly those that began very early in life. They did this as a survival technique. Better to go ahead and just realize that life is a long fight with City Hall that you always lose, than to get your hopes up that you just might win every now and then. Hopes can be smashed and a person can be devastated by such dashing. So, why not just avoid the whole mess altogether by just being a perpetual victim.
/https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/traversing-the-inner-terrain/201102/the-victim-identity

I don't think we should doubt that true heroes, martyrs for causes, have existed in our history...that does not mean that everyone that destroys themselves is a hero. Even some of those who have died in the name of a cause may not have been fully sane.

On Steemit

How often have you seen flagwars break out here? How often have you seen a minnow make a kamikaze run at a whale?

And how often have you seen the minnow making that martyr's run have any success, or agreed with their cause?

Did you attempt to reason with the minnow, or to convince them to try a different mode of engagement, or at the very least, to not spit in the whale's face?

And how often did minnow listen?

There are other power levels that exist here, but the simple fact that one person holds a bigger stack of rep or SP means that we should not seek to piss off people that can kick our ass Steem-Style. Obviously, it's going to happen sometimes.

But don't keep spitting into somebody's face afterwards!

Martyrdom matters when a cause is involved, and AFAIAC, when there is a chance that there is some payoff to the sacrifice. Otherwise, martyrdom is actually "martyr complex", and just plain insane.