Josh, there are so many things wrong with your argument, I could write a whole article on them. But I think that your definition of "badass" is where the problem stems from. Lets take an example of a movie that everyone can agree features a badass: Man on Fire. When Creasy is crying himself to sleep because he has nothing left to live for, do we think he's a badass? No. We think he's deep. We think he's a dynamic, human character that we can relate to. Its when he's calmly cutting people's fingers off or remorselessly informing people that he's planted a bomb in their rectum that we think, "damn, this guy is hard!"

If you're talking about who you want to be when you grow up, please, keep talking about being vulnerable and having lofty ideals. But if the discussion is about badassery, lets talk about stopping at nothing to do what needs to be done and walking calmly away as the world burns around you. Being able to cry at your weakness might make you more of a man, but it doesn't make you more of a badass.