To be frank, those are the things at stake. When someone wants to take something from you, they always minimize what they're taking as a manipulation tactic. It's never “This gold is so important and valuable, give it to me,” it's “Let me take this worthless metal off your hands and give you some fiat.”
If we ever sound “dramatic,” consider it to be a counterweight to their minimization. And, in fact, these are dramatic issues. In 1984, the Party asks “What's the big deal?” about just admitting 2+2=5, when actually, conceding even that little point would concede the entire game.