langurmonkey: I'm no Kung Fu master so I'm a lot weaker than such a person. If I go up to such a person, insult them for no reason, I fully expect to get my ass kicked. And I deserved it. And I would lose a lot of respect for the Kung Fu master if he just stood there and took my abuse.
As a martial artist myself, I'd lose respect for the guy if he kicked your arse. You use those skills to defend yourself and your loved ones from someone who is getting physically violent (you can use it for sport and fitness as well but that's irrelevant to the situation), not to beat the piss out of someone for being an arsehole. That shit just isn't on and doesn't make a good defense in court when you're up on assault charges.
They don't have to stand there and take it, but there's a lot more that can be done to end/calm the situation before escalating it into physical violence.
Sorry for going off on a tangent (like it matters at this point, hehe) but I felt I had to step in there and give a different perspective to that particular hypothetical.