I don't have enough information to decide if you're one of the "ball busters" that I usually work for, and you're justifying it, or if you're simply not wanting to coddle the manipulators. If you are the former, then you are the reason for any problems in your organization, not your "dumb" employees. You don't know best, like you think you do. If you are the latter, I completely agree with you. One can be kind and give criticism of the specific issue at hand without telling the employee that they are useless, or threatening to fire them.