They are not worthless.  They are a form of social signalling showing who&#x27;s trendy, who thought of it first, a form of personal aggrandizement.  The fundamental outlook behind them is the idea the general public is inherently inferior, savage, and without rules it would be a world eternally red in tooth and claw, and only I am a superior enough leader, better than all the rest of you, to set the moral and ethical standards of our culture, now everyone get in line behind my moral authority, and appreciate my public declaration of my own superiority.  They&#x27;re obnoxious, unnecessary, and counterproductive, but not worthless.