And you have to wonder how much of this is deliberate show-boating.

A lot of our cultural raising is about being polite and civil since it is essential for a lot of day-to-day interactions. Especially between equals since over-the-top belligerence gets you into fights when you’re young and the sort of feuds and grudges that can prove fatal in a workplace career. And who wants to work for a yelling martinet anyways?

I’ve seen some people (mainly managers) get away with it for a while, but they were in all cases surviving due to a highly placed patron who had their back. And they were disliked if not outright hated by their co-workers and others who had to deal with them.

We’re not a society of lone wolves. We have a lot of baggage and training in little things that lubricate the cooperation which we highly depend on.