When encountering this kind of behavior, I tend to stare directly into that persons’ deepest soul with my (admittedly only) 5 decades of lived experience and imagine lasers shooting out of my eyes, burning away their dismissal, while fire licks up the legs of their chair, and gongs ring loudly in their ears.

While I hold this visualization, I give a chilly smile and say something like “Excuse me, I must have misheard you. What… did you just call me?”

That usually snaps them out of it. It seems to help to NOT tell them how I feel. But to project my feeling of fury all over them and let them steam for a bit under my lasers.

I don’t know if it really works, but it’s (a) very satisfying. And (b) definitely shakes them. 😈