This paper argues that the application of a theory of strict negligibility to the domain of individual and political action—suggesting for example that individuals have no rational justification to reduce their own carbon emissions — has distorted our understanding of action and denuded our understanding of politics. It does so by naturalizing, as given, conditions which even in economic theory are largely idealized (in very few real markets are all firms merely price takers), and which are largely inapplicable in real life political situations. Strict negligibility theorists ignore the uncertainty of the future in relation to both natural processes and human action. They stipulatively rule out strategic and non-strategic forms of human interaction and mutual influence, and fail to consider the relevance of identity and solidarity as intrinsic motivations. In being paralyzed in instrumental and moral reasoning by the defense of the free rider (and its inverse, the fear of being a sucker), we lose our grip on the structure of action and of politics itself as articulated by these key dimensions of uncertainty, interaction, and identity. In accordance with this diagnosis, this paper aims not to solve the problem of negligibility so much as to dissolve it.