I do not hate the term myself, I dislike that the world is dominated by religion and thusly people without it require a tag to define us. More often than not it mis-defines individuals and their position is more nuanced and likely to evolve with age.

I dislike how the term has been misused in history and is now.

To avoid the negatives and yet keep the accuracy of my 'label' I began refering to myself by the more accurate idiom Ignostic.

instead of a visceral reaction from believers who react thinking by definition I am calling them liars or fools, I get a mystified response most of the time.

Ignosticism is an Epistomologic position; it is a set of ideas refuting the importance of determining the existence of God. It claims that knowledge regarding the reality of God is altogether unprofitable.

It is the idea that every theological position assumes too much about the concept of God and other theological concepts; including (but not limited to) concepts of faith, spirituality, heaven, hell, afterlife, damnation, salvation, sin and the soul.

IF you cannot even define what you are talking about, or consider it beyond human understanding, how is it you can claim to know anything about it and keep your intellectual integrity intact?

I agree with this sentiment. I don't use "Athiest" at all, never have. I personally don't like the word and it's too charged for it to be a workable description of myself. As a prior service person, I had the option back then to not claim any religion, and so the official classification for someone like me was "No religious preference," which might have been the military's code for 'athiest" back then, I don't know. I know that now they have the actual classification of "Athiest" and other religions beside Christian or Jewish. I just claim to have no religion, I guess I'm one of the "Nones" even though I don't use that as a self description either. I hate labels, and try not to use them.

I'd say they win when you argue the point instead of just laughing and walking away. Religion brings nothing of value to the table.