Sayre's Law

Sayre's law is an adage stating that "in any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the stakes at issue." The principle underscores how conflicts over minor matters often generate outsized animosity due to the absence of significant material consequences.

Sayre, a professor of political science at Columbia University from 1952 until his death, drew from his experiences in university administration and faculty governance, where competition for prestige and minor perquisites often eclipsed substantive policy differences. The law underscores a pattern wherein low tangible risks permit unchecked escalation of ideological or interpersonal conflicts, unmitigated by external accountability or significant loss.

source: https://grokipedia.com/page/Sayre's_law

See also TWOTW: Bikeshedding