No mocking here, but I will say that, IMO, I not only think such people are sincere when they say "they do not hate us", but also are sincere when they say, "I don't hate you, I hate the Catholic Church" (or Catholicism, or the "teachings of Rome", etc).
At least I think some are sincere. However it's difficult to believe the above claim at times, when (apparently) deliberate opacity is employed during the middle of a debate/discussion. I'm guessing for some, that "hate for Catholicism, not you" runs pretty deep.
(trying to think ..unaccustomed activity for me ...)
Yes. I think some hate Catholicism. I think some find Catholicism a fit target for general object free hate rolling around inside them In another situation they'd find something else to hate. I think some just are freaked out by Catholics as well as Catholicism. I mean they must do weird stuff with their beads and patent leather shoes and nuns and everything. (This is when we converts who did NOT grow up in RC culture have a kind of advantage. We can just say,"I don't know anything about that. The only nun I ever knew was cool."
But I think some hate us, plain and simple. I mean if somebody belittles one's opinions either sort of straightforwardly by laughing it at it and delivering not reasoned arguments but putdowns, or indirectly by pretending it was never uttered, ignoring both fact and reason and always repeating the same old attacks de novo, then you can be pretty sure that person doesn't care about persuasion or about the feelings of the person s/he's talking to. And further we have indications that some set out to irritate and hve no interest in the Truth as such.
Hmm. Maybe contempt would be a more precise word.
And I'll still assert that in a few cases it's an illness which has found an outlet.