I think I have found the litmus test.  I mean, like the universal litmus test---about whether I understand how you work.

Do you like motorized watercraft?

If you answered anything other than an enthusiastic "YEAH!", I can probably understand your perspective, even if I disagree with it.  If you offered to show me your jet boat, I probably don't understand you, at all.

There are two competing visions of utopia:  one in which everyone gets along, the other in which "I got mine" and I'm free of any restrictive rules.  Motorboaters like the second.
Boaters like to think the rules are terribly important, but that they don't apply to them, only as a means to justify their advantage.  I'm referring to both the man-made laws, as well as the natural laws of physics.

Motorboaters are proud.  They're not just intellectually lazy, they're anti-intellectual.  They're the grown-up version of elementary/middle school social politics, without the social censure for arrogance and rudeness.

They act as if everything they're involved with is the best,, even when empirical data suggests otherwise.

They like to pitch a "tent" near other people and then pretend the neighbors don't exist (or at least that the neighbor's interests have no value.)Darn it, they can be as loud or as obnoxious as they want.  They can foul the water as much as they want.  They can drive fast inside the 5mph buouy with the drunken excuse that they didn't see anyone in the water, and they deserve a break.  And, for the most part, they're irresponsible, ignorant, rude, ...

The two people on the planet I hate  are motorboaters...would be even if they didn't have boats.  I bet motorboating is *huge* in Texas.  I suspect a disproportionate fraction of Sarah Palin supporters love ski boats.

If GWB hadn't been born with a silver spoon up his nose, he'd be a motorboater.  Actually, he'd probably ride a jet ski, so he could occasionally feel like he had something powerful between his legs.

There's this whole culture of people who act as I've described above.  I used to want to call them "Texans", as the culture seems to have taken a strong hold in Texas.  But they're widely present elsewhere.  And there certainly are people, happy to live in Texas, who are not "Texans".

I have a friend who used to say "A Texan is someone who can be sitting on the beach in Hawai'i, with a fruity beverage in his hand, having just finished 18 holes with his best score ever, on a private strip with his family all around, and the thought going through his head would be 'man, I wish I was back in Texas.'"

So, yeah...call 'em motorboaters, or Texans  (and if you happen to drive a motorboat or live in Texas, but the above doesn't describe you, give me another moniker to apply).  But darn it, now that I have this test, I will use it to minimize the time I spend trying with some folks...