Let me point something out. You aren't a soldier at war, without a clear reason to stand and fight, the very best thing to do is evade as carefully as you can. Successfully evading a fight leaves you alive, getting into a fight brings a whole lot of risk, risks that can't even be calculated.
There have been a lot of discussions as to whether or not a person should go armed into dangerous territories. Being armed can give a person a dangerous feeling of safety. Being unarmed would bring a sense of urgency, of fear, that could encourage a person to be even more careful.
So should a person go into bear country totally unarmed and helpless? Maybe, if it will encourage that person to be more aware, to be safer, to not engage in dangerous activities like smashing through off trail areas that may harbor dangerous critters. Bears, however, are irrational, but not to the extreme that they are completely unlike humans. Normally, neither a bear nor a hoodlum are willing to engage in a life/death struggle with a stranger, and ordinarily, they aren't simply looking to kill you. A grizzly will engage in false charges, a hoodlum will sometimes bluff.
So, simply stated, if you want to stay safe and alive, the best chance you have is to avoid confrontations. That means staying out of the wrong bars, don't gas up after midnight, don't date married women, never wear a trump hat in the wrong area of town, etc. Avoid the confrontations hours before they happen.