silent death stares
xIre said that Silence gets your point across better than anything else with how its lack of fuel halts failure modes in favor of controlling conversations. It leads to a free OODA loop that helps avoid seeking the authority, meaning, and rationalization of hearing yourself talk.
Silence might even make others uncomfortable with the normalized back-and-forth nature of daily exchanges. Check out Connie's first-hand example of that in I Have a Death Stare and I’m Not Afraid to Use It. She recounted a scenario she recently faced at a campground's check-in. Contrary to every other check-in encounter she had prior, someone kept asking if she was alone. Loudly at that.
Dude B’s tone, his facial expressions, and my intuition told me there were no harmful intentions.
He was just overly inquisitive, possibly hasn’t seen many solo lady travelers, and was totally naive in his approach.
That would be fine if not for him practically announcing it to the room. So:
Instead of answering his questions I stand firm, invoke the death stare, and laser-beam it straight at Dude B.
Then a funny thing happened, Dude B quickly changed the subject ðŸ¤
Dude A continued checking me in. He kept his eyes glued to the computer screen but the slight, involuntary grin on his face told me everything I needed to know.
Have you had moments in your life where silence, death stares, or both came in handy? Either way, can you think of moments where they could have came in handy?