I am like this with very rare exceptions. One such exception was when I went on a 3 day 2 night conference with someone. They seemed to think I was the type of person to not stand up to others and (from what I could tell) decided to use me to be loud about things with since they didn't/couldn't with others (they did not like confrontation, as they had stated several times before this). I had originally been cool with going with them because they appeared to act nicely with everyone else and at meetings.
So... we come to the conference, they keep chewing out the hotel staff, they rant and rave to and at me about things, keep throwing a hissy fit about stuff. There was even a billing issue that I was happy to take care of (error done at check in, computer couldn't be altered, so we couldn't split the bill... so I was going to take the whole thing cause we were getting reimbursed). They threw another fit and started telling them and me off as the poor folks TRIED to fix it.
This continued and I was maintaining politeness on the 5 hour drive back (I was driving and drove us up). On the last hour my son's autism came up (after many long rants and things about how my generation was being dumb and what not and other things). They proceeded to tell me it was caused by bread. And if I had never given him bread he would be fine and would be fine if I stopped giving it to him. I, as calmly as I could during what was the most stressful part of the drive, explained what research shows about autism and the various sources vs their single source which was a book out to prove eating wheat was evil for all the reasons. How we had talked to doctors and experts and such. Then they told me flat out I was wrong and it was all because of bread.
And I lost it.
Because they wanted to just be right and have someone submit to them and I let them have it while changing lanes onto the next highway. Was I right in lashing out? No, I shoulda kept my cool. Been the better person and all that. But I will say that the last 45 minutes they finally shut up. I have less than 0 respect for them because they will only act nice and quiet if they think you'll push back at all. Otherwise they will stomp all over you because they can.
My point is some people, for various reasons, will push folks o far and that will cause them to feel like they lost points. It is worth taking time to find out how people take respect and meet them in the middle. But some folks aren't always going to be worthy or respect and you won't find out until you are one on one with them.