I don't think it's as clear cut as traddies v folkies. What we do have is a lot of different opinions. Some of these are strongly held principles, others are simply taking a position for the sake of argument. Some are based on deep knowledge, others on total ignorance. Mostly they seem to be based around different perceptions of what "folk" is. You can add into the mix American-British cultural differences and misundertandings.

I think it's probably true that we Brits like a good argument, which seems to alarm our transatlantic neighbours. Possibly (although I've not thought this through) there is a greater stylistic divide between our trad and contemporary songs than theirs which makes the trad v folkie question more of an issue for us.

It's also very easy, when writing thoughts down quickly in response to a post, to phrase them badly and to be misunderstood, and perhaps to appear more aggressive or dogmatic than is intended. I suspect that if we were all to be gathered together, debating face to face, we would all be a lot more reasonable and perhaps find more common ground.

I don't find I experience much animosity in the real world. I've never been to a club which tried to enforce an absolute trad-only policy (if I had I rather think I'd try to slip a modern composition past them to see if they noticed). Out there it's simply a matter of personal taste. If I go to a folk club only to find it's not the sort of music I enjoy, I don't go back. I don't feel obliged to listen to, far less like, a particular singer just because they're labelled "folk".