Attacked

Fuck that.

Fuck the idea that someone attempts to kill your girlfriend while she is riding her bike and you should "make their day a little brighter".

So you want instead to give them the finger and piss them off? When you have to share the road with them and they are clearly not particularly competent drivers to begin with?

Fuck the immoral Christian nature of the sentiment, if someone tries to injure, attack or otherwise damage me (or anyone) I think it is my duty to show them that this course of action is unacceptable, wrong in every way possible, I think it is immoral to show them respect or make their day a little brighter - as much as I think it might be a poor choice of response to clap a rapist.

Yes, maybe if you catch them at the lights then have a word. If they are the typical impatient/angry driver that does these sorts of things then swearing at them is not going to make them see the error of their ways; it's likely to make them worse.

Fuck 'respect' in whatever vague nebulous sense you are using it. (all arguments containing the word 'respect' are - by it's use - meaningless.)

I respect cars in the fact that they are bigger than me and have the potential to cause me great physical harm, not in any other sense.

Do not give these cunts the idea that not only is it cool to attack or threaten a cyclist, but that doing so carries no consequences.

Does being aggressive give the idea that it not "cool" or merely annoy them further? I would say the latter.

Every single driver who endangers my life or someone I know, or someone I love gets to find out how their lack of consideration makes me feel.

Really, this whole "hey guys, just leave it" thing is simply counterproductive, to take the sting out of someone's actions is morally ornamental, it may leave you some some 'zen' sense of calm and pious righteousness but you have passed the problem on to the next cyclist.

If someone does something stupid, doing something aggressive back is unlikely to make them reconsider. In the worst case, it may make them do something even more stupid.

Action: threaten someone's life - response: respect = bad.

**Not respect, just try not to escalate the situation.

**Action: threaten someone's life - response: broken windscreen = good.

So if someone cuts you up you break their windscreen? I don't really see how that will make them respect cyclists more. Probably the opposite, even if you are in the right.

Just my opinion...