I think GP is referring to people like Elon Musk, who have a personal brand built around the idea that they’re “rational people who make data-driven decisions based on logic” and yet twist themselves into fascinating rhetorical shapes trying to argue that human colonization of Mars is possible, necessary and also imminent. I think they do this because they recognize that “some small amount of our resources” won’t actually be enough to do anything on Mars in the coming century, and they want to go to Mars in their lifetime.