You are correct — “I’ll show that guy” means very little when your front end is crumpled up and his rear end is slightly dented.
I like to be able to see what the traffic seven or eight cars ahead of me is doing, you can’t do that when you tailgate, especially trucks, in fact when you tailgate trucks you can’t see traffic signals or road signs and if the truck stops fast, you’re looking at almost a write-off even if you survive the rear-ender yourself.
Nobody offered any actual suggestions yet about how to get the standard of driving up, it must lie in better education of drivers combined with more effective banning of repeat offenders. I cringe when I read stories about so and so who finally met their end after sixteen convictions for DUI, like how do they ever get back on the road after three?
Here is a suggestion. STOP issuing driver’s licenses to illegal invaders.