The problem is not the word, it's labelling, and treating us as a group, and discriminating against us. Frankly, we should enjoy minority protection. If you look at some of the hate posts against cyclists, and substitute the word cyclist, with a religious or ethnic group, arrests would be made. On a daily basis, our lives are put at risk due to this prejudice, and I would guess that there are more cyclists killed and seriously injured than all other protected groups due to 'hate crimes'.
Yet people continue to boast about punishment passes, and what they'll do to 'cyclists'. One problem is us being guilty of encouraging it, by such talk as 'blah blah blah - gives us a bad name'. You never see somebody posting about a driver doing so and so giving all drivers a bad name, it's just 'what an idiot'. Also, I tend to avoid this forum now, because of the open abuse by some, of sub groups of cyclists they choose to demean. If we want as a community to stop being abused, probably best to start with respecting eachother.