[Loughla]

Being smug and putting on airs are bullying. Subtle, but still bullying. It's exclusionary and it's condescending.

Imagine this: Young nerdy guy sees incredibly popular hipster guy in his high school listening to some band, I don't know WAM! or whatever the kids listen to these days. Either way, young nerdy guy LOVES that band, but has only recently started listening to it.

So he decides to strike up a conversation with popular hipster about WAM's newest album. Popular hipster shuts him down simply by saying, "Oh, yeah, that album's okay, if you like mainstream sounds, but I've been listening to them for like 5 years now. You should hear their unreleased Japanese single called 'Kuma o tabetai'." Young nerd now has nothing to talk about, and shambles away.

Not OVERT bullying, but it is absolutely asserting dominance in an aggressive way through exclusion.