I dunno, I have always found that cluelessness is a great power move in situations like that. The sorts of people who say things like that rarely seem to be prepared for the response, plus sometimes it makes them paranoid that they can't predict where your return salvo is coming from.

The return salvo is in fact that being so insecure about status in a social hierarchy that [generic] you are reduced to trying to cut everyone else down to match you is pretty sad. Confident people can articulate their grievances in actual words. that's it that's all I have to respond