I've always judged fans by how honest they are about their own teams.
For me Newcastle fans have been well grounded, and appreciative of football in general.
City fans too, if we're honest, KNOW we can clutch defeat from the jaws of victory like no other team. We KNOW that about ourselves.
Now, with some fans (certainly not all), they never seem to accept any failings at all. I don't know if this comes from years of success, when of course it becomes harder to see the weaknesses when you keep winning everything in site.
The one thing that TOTALLY irks me though is 'history'. As if somehow one team HAS history and another doesn't.
Everton 'have' history cos they've won a good amount and been in the top flight the longest. But does that mean Rochdale fans dont understand football, don't have a valid opinion, don't have history of their own? no
Of course, there will always be morons as every club, City included, in general though, most fans are the same the world over - pretty reasonable deep down, and capable of being sensible about discussing other teams / fans.
But attitude does seem to spread like wildfire very quickly when you're winning, and lets remember, a lot of fans of (say) United will NEVER have known anything else other than winning. They simply don't know what it means. Coming second in the league is 'pain' for them. It's not their fault, they simply don't know.
And, to be fair, we too suffer from it. We don't KNOW what it's like to have 1000 fans sat in squalid stands watching lousy football etc. We have it damn lucky and so easily forget it cos we're comparing ourselves with United or Liverpool etc, and not Rochdale or Accrington Stanley.