Is there a compromise between "intellectual" and "pretentious"?

[Sethomas]

Making an accusation of pretension is pretentious. If you know what "pretentious" means, you're pretentious.

Actually, the general subject of this thread is something that interests me a lot because of different biomes where I've found myself. My annoyance is that very often the term "pretentious" will get thrown out to claim a moral victory over someone who is simply smarter or merely more articulate than the plaintiff. If someone's level of conversation is below yours, they're either a moron or philistine. If it's above yours, they're obviously pretentious. It's exactly like the George Carlin line, "Ever notice that everyone who drives slower than you is a moron and everyone who drives faster than you is a maniac?"