Long ago, as a kid, I read a book written by a defector from the Soviet Army. It's still an interesting book, I recommend it.

There's a chapter in it about leadership lessons he learned. One is that threats are a sign of weakness, not strength. Threats are what people resort to when they don't have the power to just act. Human beings don't threaten bugs; they just step on them.

So when someone comes at you with threats, keep that in mind. Often the threat is a tell, a sign that the person making it needs to scare you into complying because they can't just force you to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_the_Soviet_Army

@jalefkowit we heard a story once from a friend, which, you know, may or may not have been true

about being mugged by someone whose gun turned out to have no bullets in it

@meltedcheese @jalefkowit the story goes that the assailant cocked the gun twice in a row

which, we're told, would eject the bullet or cause a jam, if there were one in the chamber. so that meant it was empty.

we're not gun people, we're going entirely on what our friend reported here, we've never used these devices