TL;DR: When real life trolls decide they're going to bother you, and you don't want to keep wasting clever lines on someone who clearly just wants to harass somebody, do you let them force you out by walking away, or do you shut them up physically and take the risk of legal consequences?

This is something I have always struggled with, and I know a lot of other men do as well. In a natural world, combat is a valuable and fair means of determining things like property, SMV, and respect. Animals frequently fight for territory, women, and rank in the wild, and humans did this before we became civilized as well.

Fast forward to modern civilization and men are very confused. In movies we always see the tough alpha male step up to social challenges and lay some guy out with little to no consequences. It makes us think that when confronted, we should assert ourselves. However, the reality seems very different.

  • Hit someone at work? Fired, possibly sued.
  • Hit someone in public? Possible assault and battery.
  • Hit someone first because they were passionately toeing the grey line of harassment? Even worse.

We still want to resolve differences through mild violence, and as men we are sometimes expected to do so, but if we make that choice we essentially place our fate in the hands of others who either choose not to call the police, or police who choose not to take you to jail because they agree with you. I personally don't like putting my life in the hands of strangers, but I also can't stand that feeling of having to play every situation like a scared rat and either tell the authorities or try to win some silly contest of words with adult versions of "I know you are but what am I?"

I am not the type of person to fly off the handle for no reason, and I don't go out looking for fights, but sometimes people just have a chip on their shoulder and decide you're their next victim. I don't want to be a victim, but am I really reduced to "telling teacher" on them since violence is so harshly frowned upon (yet secretly encouraged and looked up to) in our society? How do you know when to get physical and when to swallow your pride?