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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023

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Yeah I don't think this interview added much evidence other than that other people on the car were scared. The fact that she brought up him throwing his jacket and not any other instance of trash throwing may suggest he wasn't throwing anything particularly injurious.

To me, stripping out of a jacket/shirt is prototypical "I am posturing and about to throw fists" behavior.

In normal conflict situations, the two are mutually contradictory. Someone who is actually planning to attack just does it. Someone who is making a real threat to attack unless you to submit just does that. Someone who is noisily posturing about their willingness to start a fight isn't "about to throw fists" unless someone else accepts the challenge.

  • -14

I have literally seen people take off their jacket and then start punching the other person in a fight. Granted, this was in high school, but that's also the last time I really seriously interacted with the bottom quarter of the population.

Did he take off his jacket and start punching, or did he take off his jacket, engage in a long rant about how he was going to kick ass, and then start punching. I am claiming that the second version (nonspecific ranting followed by violence) is rare.

Someone who is noisily posturing about their willingness to start a fight isn't "about to throw fists" unless someone else accepts the challenge.

Except that things like "failing to immediately obey him" may be taken as accepting the challenge.