It is a universal truth that those in possession of intelligence must be in want of a place to show it off.
Maybe it is because I attend school in such a small town, where the intelligent people seem so far separated from the "regular" people that there can be such high levels of snobbery.
But being intelligent, or different in a way that is maybe more...artsy? Liberal (in the free way, not the political way)? etc. does not make you better than anyone else. Yes, I admit, some people are different than the typical area breed. Some have more ambition. Others, a more active, questioning intelligence. That's not to something to be ignored. But that doesn't mean your ideas are touched by God, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, or Nietzsche, nor are they comparable to the ideas of those beings.
What I can't stand is when someone implies that his/her difference make himself/herself superior. I have met people who think they are way more intelligent than proven. Just because you have a 4.0, or a scholarship, or anything "different" and special in this little town, does not mean you are the best. You are average compared to some. Below average compared to others. Ridiculously impaired compared to a select (or not so select, depending on who you are) group. This applies to myself, included.
Nothing you can say or do separates you completely from the mass of humanity into which you were born. Yes, you can tell yourself you have qualifications that make your life somehow more fulfilling. But at the end of the day, you are human. You can hate the rest of humanity with the depths of your disillusioned soul, but you are not really any different from them. You never will be.
If it makes you feel better, viciousness has a savagery to it that makes you…just like everyone else. Perhaps even a little worse. And difference is always superior, right?