It is important to conduct yourself accordingly.
I do, is there anything I posted to suggest I don't?
Yeah. Your "I occasionally give the finger to people on the freeway after they pull some kind of BS on the road," comment pretty much tarrs you with a black brush. Responding to people who vehicularly offend you in some way with a visual insult is childish and
absolutely can lead to escalation of violence. It is not the right path to take. Even if you don't care about the ambassadorship element of life, what does such an act gain for you? Nothing.
No one has EVER
offended or
insulted another person to such a degree that the other person decided to agree with them, apologize, or in any other way make restitution for their poor actions. So why respond? The only possible answer is that it offers some impotent release for your anger. But that is a monstrously immature justification.
Duh. I'm not talking about an advantage in taking bullets/razor blades/getting hit by a truck. Working out makes you a healthier person in every area of your life and gives you a mental advantage over people who do not.
So that's what you meant by being physically superior to others? O.k. Enjoy it. It is fleeting, temporary. Try to think beyond to a couple of years down the road when your body won't be a few percentage points above average capacities.
In a lot of places that can get you arrested, and just about anywhere, it can get you killed or injured. Bad idea. All downside, no upside.
If they give me a reason to and a cop see's what happened, any cop with half a brain is going to pull them over before me.
Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe there will be a cop there. Maybe not. Maybe the other driver will draw a gun and shoot you before you have time to react. It happens. Actually it happened near here recently. You never know what the other guy will do. If you can't improve your own life or situation by antagonizing him, why risk tripping his trigger?
I have read extensively about all of them. I am not a pompus jerk or a civil butthead or a social misfit.
Good to hear. Perhaps you've just chosen some unfortunate examples of behavior to share here.
If you have read about them, then you would know that William Wallace was a "pompus jerk" to his opposition. He was not civil to England in the least bit and would be considered a social misfit according to them.
I think you should consider the scope of what you're discussing. Armed grassroots resistance to an oppressive "foreign" power is a far cry from offering a fellow driver a profane gesture as an ineffectual protest against being inconvenienced in some infinitesimally minuscule way. Try not to insult the memory and accomplishments of great men by comparing piggish road rage to the legendary causes they fought and (usually) died for.
If someone cuts you of and you flip them off, it is not going to end in a deadly confrontation, so this argument is invalid.
Oh... wow. You really have no idea of what happens in the big bad world? Yeah. People die over stuff like this. People end up in jail over stuff like this. "Good guys" turn into "bad guys" over stuff like this. It isn't harmless. It isn't cool. It isn't responsible.
Have anything to say about Wallace and his men mooning an entire army?
Yes. Not to get off-topic, but I do. Celtic, Briton, Gaels and Picti warriors (and all those other tribal societies) did all kinds of things to cause terror in their enemies, including face-painting and unnerving vocalizations. Those were battle tactics. They were organized, purposeful, and effective -- preparatory to killing your enemy and/or dying in battle.
If flipping someone off in traffic is analogous ... well, I'm not smart enough to see the connection.