Here's my theory about why people get upset when you tell them you don't like the music, or movies, or whatever, that they like. I believe that listening to music and watching movies is a very expressive thing for people. Their music is them. The movies they like are part of their ego. So when you strike those things, you're striking the people that like them as well.
Let's take a lesson from this observation and move away from anger when someone strikes the arts we enjoy. Maybe they are just trying to piss you off, but most times I think people are just not thinking about this.
I think this phenomenon is at the root of all "religious wars". I'm not talking about religion (although maybe that's the same), I'm talking about things like Windows vs Mac, iPhone vs Android, vi vs Emacs.
Another lesson we can take here is to be careful about when you express any kind of negativity. This is sort of a personal choice – sometimes we actually prefer people who just say what's on their mind all the time – but if you're talking to someone that you really don't want to offend, you should avoid negative expressions, because you might strike some part of them – maybe a trivial part, or maybe a sacred one.
But how can we avoid being drawn to anger ourselves? We must detach ourselves from things. "Seeing me before him, the enemy attacks, but by that time I am already standing safely behind him."
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