The basis for this is a racist hoax called #TheTragedyOfTheCommons, by the eugenicist white supremacist #GarrettHardin, published by *Science* in 1968:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/01/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-how-ecofascism-was-smuggled-into-mainstream-thought/

Hardin invented an imaginary history in which "#commons" - things owned and shared by a community - are inevitably overrun by selfish assholes, which prompts nice people to *also* overrun the commons, so as to get some value out of them before they are gobbled up by people who read Garrett Hardin essays.

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