It's more as though I'm angry their opinions are poorly thought out and want to make them think seriously about the subject. It's not a desire to lower their social status except insofar as I feel that will cause them to think critically about the issue (which doesn't actually ever happen as a consequence of lower social status, probably).

I don't really have a desire to demonstrate my intelligence/moderation/creativity either, exactly. It's more like, one, I enjoy exercising my capabilities for those traits, and two, I want to persuade them that intelligence/moderation/creativity are good things that are worth striving for.

Basically, I am getting frustrated that other people have a different thinking style than me and then trying to convince them to change it by being a jerk. But I should probably just avoid any object level disagreements except for important exceptions, and focus on improving people's rationality in more gentle and less confrontational ways. It's just that it's difficult to remember this in the moment, as it's frustrating listening to people I see as irrational.

Probably, this implies that my tolerance for irrationality is too low. I'm seeing irrationality too often, I expect. Even when it is there, I ought to leave it alone most of the time.