In the Individualism culture tree, the very first trait at the start of the tree is called Independence. It alters colony supply attrition by 15%.

It is a PENALTY to the player. It makes attrition from colonies worse. Like if there is a colony with supply attrition of 10%, selecting the first Individualism "perk" makes it's supply attrition go to 12%.

Somebody in Discord said it's basically no big deal, it doesn't make that much difference. Or that there SHOULD BE penalties in the things that are supposed to be bonuses. Or that the rest of the perks in the tree are good enough that it is worth taking the initial penalty just to get into the Individualism tree.

Well I think all of those excuses for making a "perk" detrimental are crap, to put it nicely. It is a big deal to me. I have decided it is no longer tolerable to be told to accept bad things happening to me, for some sort of maybe beneficial thing. So is this working as intended, or is it a bug? If it's working as intended I'll just go ahead and clear up some hard drive space. If it's a bug I'll try playing again at some point in the future after it is fixed.

Happy (almost) New Year.