On meritocracy

Oh, agreed. But there's "I've had a bad day" and there's "I do this as a matter of course when I get slightly annoyed". l-k hackers are not saints even after they have won the Millennium Technology Prize, so nobody could expect perfect courtesy at all times -- but doing it routinely is not only unpleasant for everyone else but unpleasant for the mocker and probably also a sign of approaching burnout. (I dodged that bullet a couple of years ago.)

Then there is "this is my only visible way of interacting with other people", Joerg Schilling being the foremost exemplar of this approach. Note that as Joerg's unremittingly hostile attitude made clear, hostile approaches rarely lead to constructive outcomes when the people being hostiled at are major l-k figures -- I do wonder why anyone would expect them to lead to constructive outcomes in any other situation. Most people are less hostile than Joerg even when they're being nasty, and there is at least the possibility of movement: is that all it is?