It's something that Cory Morrow said to me a long time ago - "Don't ever forget why Nashville is Nashville. The Opry is there for a reason. Country music lives there. Don't be bitter. And don't ever treat Texas or Nashville like either one isn't important. "
I think that one way of diffusing an insult is to turn it around and laugh at yourself - that's a way of coping with it - and another is to just ignore it.