Nah, I see that. That's in that first paragraph where I say sometimes I do that _not_ deliberately. You're totally right, that's just how it happens when it happens. Although I will (of course) reserve the right to judge each individual instance. If I feel like someone DOESN'T have DATA that I do, I COULD be totally wrong, or maybe not. I don't think it matters if the message received (And I COULD say it wrong or maybe not) is "You're not as good as I am," instead of "wait, you're ignoring x fact, we're totally not going to come to the same conclusions if we don't agree what the facts are."

The occasion where it happened this time was one in which I carefully did Not tell this person he didn't know what he was talking about until it was plain after several rounds that he was not listening/reading anything said, and he was using status put-downs (naive, simplistic, brainwashed by the liberal media/government propaganda) to argue rather than actually arguing.

Secondly, he was doing this to someone else that I feel protective of, so I diverted his fire to me, and responded in kind to his next volley of "ivory tower intellectual" with "redneck who persists in proud ignorance."

Then, kaboom.