I'm pretty sure a guy called "the neighborhood threat" references the cliche, "there goes the neighborhood," used by racist white people when a minority family (or some variation on the not-like-us theme) moves in...
Everything else, I'm not so sure about. If you aren't willing to bet against the guy at the bottom rung (below you), then you don't have much confidence in your own situation. Kinda paranoid and hopeless, which I guess is expected in small-minded people... So, it seems as if "buddy" is already having a sneaking suspicion that the difference between him and the neighborhood threat isn't really substantial, and he's just as likely to be down at the bottom rung too, eventually.
I'm pretty sure a guy called "the neighborhood threat" references the cliche, "there goes the neighborhood," used by racist white people when a minority family (or some variation on the not-like-us theme) moves in...
Everything else, I'm not so sure about. If you aren't willing to bet against the guy at the bottom rung (below you), then you don't have much confidence in your own situation. Kinda paranoid and hopeless, which I guess is expected in small-minded people... So, it seems as if "buddy" is already having a sneaking suspicion that the difference between him and the neighborhood threat isn't really substantial, and he's just as likely to be down at the bottom rung too, eventually.