this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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Oh GOD no! If that had turned into a fight I would have lost, unequivocally. The only reason I "won" is because I circumvented his planned script and had a knife. (Knives are the Great Equalizer in enclosed spaces for weaker parties.)
The fact I had to literally threaten with deadly force, though … Remember that "bear or man" thing?
This is why "bear".
The knife wouldn't have stopped the bear, though hahahaha
Not the point. 😉
The point is that out of nowhere a guy who started off seeming nice enough turned out to be an assaulter. I'm mega-suspicious of everybody so I didn't get taken by (much) surprise. Most people aren't as paranoid as I am. To them that would have come from nowhere and they would have had no chance to stop it.
That's the issue. If I meet a bear in the forest, I know roughly what to expect. I know to avoid it, not to irritate it, not to get between it and its children if they're around. A bear is a known quantity. (A dangerous known quantity, but known.)
If I meet a random man in the forest, I don't know what to expect. There's a good chance he's a perfectly fine, sweet, gentle, decent human being.
Or he could be a Hans.
There's no way to know, and if it is a Hans, the lack of any possible witnesses in the forest plays doubly against me.