Originally Posted by analog

In all honesty, this is one of those bullshit, nonsensical and illogical/irrational things that some people do.

It's not a psychological phenomena, it's people who take everything personally, who take everything as a personal attack. It's stupid (oh no, I said the word!), irrational, and emotionally immature to insist so. Saying that "[something] is stupid", like an idea, is not at all comparable to saying the person is stupid. As with anything, if that's your SO's only response to everything, then that's a specific problem with him, and has little to do with what specific word he's chosen to degrade you.

I don't know how this leap of logic got started, but it it's utterly ridiculous- picking a specific word and saying "if you say ______ is stupid, you're saying i'm stupid" is nonsense of the highest order. Again, i'm not talking about people who seem to use it as their only answer to everything, or for those who use it abusively (and lots of words can be used to cut people down, abusively).