Got it..

Bigot means something you call someone else in order to show your sanctimonious intellectual superiority.

Or at least, you would think so, looking at some of the recent threads.

You know, there is one uncomfortable truth that may be relevant here. If you don't use your own prejudice and past experience in order to weigh people up when deciding whether to deal with them, you would be naive. Learning from experience is something we do and are encouraged to do. Bigotry may be a by product of this instinct. It is only your degree of altruism that prevents this surfacing.

Funny how if you are ranting about Tories, ranting about bankers, ranting about offshore account holders; you can say what you like and most people on this forum (at least in The UK... USA folk must be bemused by us,) will stand behind you and say "well said."

My turn to be naive. Isn't that bigotry?   Having a political view, especially one that got more votes than the opposite view is just that, a political view. Yet if you say they are all lying scheming bastards, nobody on this forum bats an eyelid.

So, to revise my earlier definition; bigotry is ok when preaching to the converted. (especially if you use the word as a term of (ironic) abuse.)