[drcomputer]

I think it's possible to have preferences without resorting to ad hominem. Sometimes it seems that just having a preference is enough to associate you with the assholes. The truth is, every group of every thing has assholes, or groups of people that perceive assholes. Every group has people that have preference, and people that don't. Every group has people that have opinions, and may voice those opinions with certainty when they actually have no certainty, and are aware of this, but don't know how to communicate it without creating logical paradoxes.

The people elements of communication are not easy to parse correctly. You can never truly know how other people think, you can only assume based on experience collected a priori, which may be all together constructed on a false premise that intialized the pattern of thought construction.

I wish I had known the things I know now, 15 years ago. But I don't. That's part of living. We learn and grow because of our experiences. It can't be learned in any other way.

Personally, I just ignore assholes, or if I choose to engage, I learn to play their own game. Then I typically stop judging them.