That’s an interesting point. . . not that you intended to make it.
But ‘hey bub, the line’s over here’ seems to me less offensive than ‘the line’s over here, bub’
The first sounds like you’re just addressing the person (albeit not in the nicest term) but the second one sounds more like XXXXX, idiot/jerk/ass.
Of course, it’s all in the intonation and context, but I don’t think it’s about the word bub.
Probably no one else who carries concealed has noticed it, but I personally am a whole lot more calm and polite when I’m carrying than not. Things like queue-jumping, assholes on mobile phones, and other jackassery really doesn’t make me grit my teeth like it used to. Even when driving, the “bad boyz” with their backwards baseball caps and primered Accords with fart-pipe that cut in front of me only make me smile. In fact, I firmly believe that my CCW lowers my mean blood pressure and reduces the chance of stroke and heart attack.
I don’t know why - part of me says it’s because I know I can defend myself, and I don’t need to feel threatened. Some large male can explode for no good reason and threaten to “teach me a lesson” in the line at Wal-Mart all he wants, but if I step outside and he starts to follow me to my car and be threatening, he’ll soon discover that no, he is so not going to win this one.
I’m like an an unintentional fountain of wisdom and wit for you lately.
You crack me up, bub!
“Bub” may not be outright insulting, but it’s certainly disrespectful. He overreacted, but you gave him an excuse to do so.
The “bub” really wasn’t necessary. Maybe if you were a detective using your best fast talkin’ nasal voice in a 1940s film noir, ir might work, but not really in the real world.
OP, you’re the one who comes off sounding like the bigger asshole, as far as I see it.
What if they attack before you can get your hand on it? And then take it off you? A potential beating has turned into a possible shooting. Do you practice a ‘quick draw’ technique, and are you absolutely confident in it?
(It’s a really awesome species of Army Ant)
Most folks who train fighting experience the same thing. Well, lots of guys go through an immature phase where they are eager to “show off” what they have learned. But just about all of the fighters I know who had been at it for a while would go to incredible lengths to avoid a fight. One time I saw one guy - an awesome fighter - take a solid shot from some drunk bozo and walk away as the guy called him a coward. I said, “Well done,” and he said, “Hell, you tag me better than that in sparring!”
The more confident you are in your ability, the less you feel a need to prove it, and the sillier macho posturing appears.
What if she can shoot laser beams from her eyes? What about that, huh? What if she has a bee cannon concealed in her shirtsleeve? What if your uncle had been plumbed a bit differently? Would he have been your aunt?
Please have my card, call my secretary in the morning and she will schedule you for the earliest available ass kicking slot. Have a great day.
What if you had a valid objection? Would you be able to raise it from beneath the weight of your snark?
Ooooh. OK, got it. Thanks. Now, everything is making so much more sense. I wondered what he was on about before.
When you read it like an ant is talking, it makes so much more sense.
Soo, who let the ants in? Where’s the spray?! 
Yeah, maybe it is. Male toddlers up here get called Bub by their daddies sometimes. I don’t think it’s too much of an insult in these parts.
Calling someone a “Bub” is just being a smart-ass, which is why he took it offensively. ESPECIALLY if you emphasize on the nickname…
Actually, ending a statement with any form of nickname is a smart-ass move.
“The line’s over there, PAL”
“The line’s over there, MR”
“The line’s over there, PEANUT”
Okay, the last one was stupid, but you get the point.
They all have the same message, as innocent as they may seem.
Well, I’d suggest growing a few extra layers of skin if you ever come to Boston.
“Hi handsome //wink - wink // want to get in behind me.”
Escalates to “BAT”
Next comes “CHAINSAW”
On to the “GUN” department
Gets a … “TREADMILL” ???:D:D:D:D:D:D
I’m not going to address those points in the BBQ Pit; I suggest you ask a question in GQ if you want honest and substantive answers from others.
My point is when you feel confident in your ability to defend yourself, you can take the occasional slings and arrows of upset people much more in stride, and not have to escalate situations in a destructive feedback loop my getting defensive from feeling threatened. Dinsdale is correct - it could be because you’re armed, because you’re trained in a real martial art, you’re just a big happy lummox of a guy, or just because you’re “armed” with a positive attitude and faith in things going right. Since I have none of the last three, I have to rely on the first.
As I said, this works great when I’m driving - it used to be I had an instinctive response when someone aggressively cut me off in traffic or waved a gesture at me - it was to respond with anger back, to feel threatened and to get aggressive back. To meet their aggression with aggression. When I’m carrying in the car, I just say to myself “whatever, just don’t be hitting my car” and I ignore them. And in the store, waiting in line, I can look at some 20-something blustering and sputtering and puffing out his chest like a Prairie Chicken, stinking of “Axe” and human desperation, and just say “hey dude, calm down, life’s too short. You go ahead and cut in line if that’s what you need to do to make it through the day.”
The first and best way to win a fight is not to have one in the first place.
Bub is not an insult. I will admit that I always call strangers
Mister
Miss or Missus
Sir
or Ma’am
But thats mostly being used to it from the military. Plus I expect people to address me in aay that I would like so I do the same. but someone calling me “Bub” in that context wouldn’t set me off at all.
I had a terrible day once while recruiting…well, all of the days there were pretty bad, but this was a spectacular day in shittiness. I got home very late and when i was passing through the gate at Ft. Dix (with my partner SGT G in the car) there was a moron in front of me that driving at about 5 mph. I lost it and illegally went around them on the shoulder and pulled up the gate. I was wrong, i know it, and the MPs at the gate saw it and knew it. They were letting me in the gate when one of the said “you know, passing that other car was completely illegal.” I replied “Yes, I know, I was wrong…look, I’m tired…its almost midnight and I had a really bad day.I’m sorry. I just want to go home.”
The MP was willing to let it fly when his fat ass National Guard partner chimed in “We all have bad days, buddy…”
That set me off. I was willing to take the verbal warning, but the fact that he called me ‘buddy’ and the way he said it…well, I uncharacteristically lost my cool.
"Buddy? Listen corporal, I didn’t ask you about your opinion. I admitted i was wrong, but it was outside of the gate, so you really can’t give me a ticket. and in the future, you’ll address me as “sergeant” and stand at parade rest when doing it. Do not address me as your “buddy’ again…Clear?” In retrospect, the corporal probably could have gotten away with it. I was pushing the boundaries of general military respect and order, but like the guy the OP talked about I just took it as an insult in being addressed that way. I felt bad about it a half hour later. on a normal day i would not even have registered it enough to be angry. maybe the guy in the OP’s story just had a really crappy day. Its no excuse to threaten him, of course, but it happens. We all have times when we’re in a craptacular mood and little things set us off.
My carpool partner that was in the car was shocked. he’d never seen me pull rank on anyone, and i rarely do. I told him later it was the way he said it, not the words in themselves. Thats why I make it an effort to speak to people with a measure of respect. It costs me nothing if they have not disrespected me…and it usually gains their respect.