Every so often one of these sorts of threads crops up.
Commiserating, story-exchanging misanthropes are so hilarious.
Self-important doucher. Go away.
Just kidding. 
Eh. I like a nice chat if forced to.
I started a thread about this:
This thread is rather instructive. I’m also like Leaffan and talk to most everyone I meet.
What I’d like to say to you, Redfrost, is — on my part there’s no inherent insincerity. I talk to people because I like them and am interested in what they have to say. Nearly everyone, except the knuckle-dragging Neandrathals, generally have interesting stories. If I size someone up as being uninteresting, of course, I probably won’t talk to them beyond, “hello, how are you.” But still. I’m not just amusing myself like you’re a Gameboy.
Duffer: I have a lot of the same feelings that you do. It’s not that we hate people, it’s that we have no patience for them. I get along fine one-on-one or in a small social gathering, as you do.
But like most task-oriented males, when I’m at the cash register, I’m there to conduct my business efficiently and get out of the way so the next person can do the same. It’s called ‘courtesy’. I don’t want to chat with anyone, least of all another person in line, and I have my credit card out and am not digging for freaking pennies in my change purse.
When I’m driving, that’s the job at hand. I don’t cell phone, I don’t fuck with the radio, I don’t let my attention wander. When the light turns green, I’m gone. I become angry and impatient with people who dither and can’t prioritize their lives, especially on the road where their actions can cause me harm.
I don’t consider myself to be misanthropic: I’m just a linear thinker who has no patience with those who are not.
Add to the things that Chefguy mentioned.
Two things happened today that really annoy me. People in the office finishing a meeting at a door, blocking it for everyone else and not seeming to care that people are waiting for them to move. “I’ll send you that file etc…” Arrgghh just get out of my fucking way.
People doing the same thing in a lift when it hits the ground floor. Two people today stood in a lift for about two minutes talking while 5 of us just stood there waiting for them to exist so we could get in and go about our day. One was a partner BTW and lay-offs have just hit our place so nobody was gonna stick their neck out and mention that they should move about 10 feet and then they could talk as much as they want.
It’s the small things that will send me to the top of a water tower one day 
I want to talk to more people than I do. One problem, though, is that I can’t read body language or other nonverbal communication. So I can’t tell if they’re enjoying the conversation or thinking this:
Being a pessimist, I always think they’ll think “F*ckoffyouweirdo”
It doesn’t help that I have a terrible memory for names and faces. I have to be around somebody a lot longer than most people do for me to remember them when I see them again.
I hate these things, too. I hate the elevator one so much that, when I’m waiting for an elevator, I will hit the button repeatedly, so that if someone’s doing that, the elevator will repeatedly ding at them. I am not proud of this, but I do it.
Well, I would not mess with your head and we would probably get along fine. However, you would less about me than I would about you. I almost always know more about my interlocutor than he/she does about me. I an inately distrusting of others. I believe most people are self-serving and have no real interest in others wants or needs. I become very cynical and analytical when in groups or crowds.
Group hug! 
Arrrgh!!! Step away!
At your own peril.
Disgruntled loner here, getting worse as I get older. I’ve always been extremely introverted and happy to be left to my own devices from pre-school on. I have had friends and boyfriends and such over the years, of course, but they were few and hard to come by.
I realize there might very well be something ‘wrong’ with me. I’ve always been very near-sighted. I have a funny sounding voice. I’ve been called a ‘flake’ in so many words all my life. I’ve always lived inside my own head. I’ve never fit in anywhere, always at the edge of the group, even among family.
I don’t hate people, but they never seemed to like me. I’d like to have had girlfriends when I was younger, and I did, but mostly they used me as a chaperone to go places with, or a designated driver, and dumped me as soon as A Man came into their lives. Now I live out in suburbia and it’s like being a ghost… Yes, I get mighty lonesome, and more so the older and uglier I get. I think some day I’ll be found dead, being eaten by cats. C’est la vie.
Frankly, people mostly bore me and irritate me (and that doesn’t mean I hate anyone), all my efforts to find soulmates and good companions have come to naught, so I guess I’m just going to live out the rest of my life lucky to have a husband, daughter, and a very few good friends and be content with that.
I quite like people, but that’s mainly because I tend to keep them at enough of a distance that they aren’t doing anything to really annoy me, like breathing.
I’ve noticed that it seems misanthropes have cats. Therefore I must get a cat. Therefore, I’ll hate myself as much as the rest of you. :smack:
Can’t fucking win.
You guys that say things like “I had friends and SOs and stuff”? Yeahno, I’ll say “my friend” sometimes but it means “that guy/girl I feel reasonably towards and talk to more in class and on campus than the rest of the drab.” I’ve never actually done anything, at all, anywhere, with anyone outside of school since 7th grade. I talk with cashiers and stuff in the normal “how are you fashion” simply because that’s the most advanced social interaction I’ll have all month, I’m surprised people even know who I am. Yet somehow at my high school every single freaking person knew my name and at least somewhat liked me for some reason, even the other people who were out of the social loop and didn’t know many names, how do you guys with friends manage to still be ghosts? I must know!
I used to think I was a misanthrope, but I realized I simply didn’t know enough beautiful witty people.
Surrounding yourself with your betters - however you choose to qualify that - does wonders for your outlook on humanity. Avoid Wal-Marts in general, though.
Like some of the above posters, I can fake it very well. I get through the work day smiling, am considered relatively charming (although rather eccentric) and have received a number of informal and even formal awards over the years for being such a pleasant co-worker/service drone. But I really don’t much care for people.
Eight hours of being Ms Sunshine & Roses at work means I get home and just crawl into my cave and stay there. I actually can’t function working full-time (5 days per week) with direct people-contact for more than about six to eight months before I start becoming a washed-out ball of nerves, so I try to work 1/2 time. Yes, I actually need equal-or-greater downtime than work time, and that’s just the way it is if I’m to sparkle and shine and be an all-round good employee. Even then, I don’t associate with co-workers outside of hours, and I always go off-site for my lunch break rather than eat in the break room. I also refuse to do ‘team building’ events scheduled outside of work hours - I am assertive in my defence of my personal time. I’ve told managers straight out that if they want me to participate in a team-related activity, it has to be scheduled during work hours; my personal life is *never *going to hold secondary place to my job.
I don’t like people, as a group. I *need * social interaction (at least in small doses) for my own mental health, but I don’t *like * ‘people’, generically. I have very, very few people I’d consider friends (defined as: people whose home I would visit, or would invite to mine) and only 2 very close friends (defined as: people I’m totally open with) - one of which is my husband.
Despite it all, I seem to function well enough in society. Folks find me friendly, and to an extent I really am - I’m just more distant than they think. I naturally run a little cooler than many other people, but I can step up the warmth to make them comfortable when I interact with them. I much prefer interacting with strangers from a distance though. I love living in the email and internet age. I hate SMS, because it’s just another way of being at people’s disposal 24/7. I turn my mobile on when I need it, and turn it off when I don’t. I don’t have messagebank on my 'phone. If it’s important, I’m available by email, or on my husband’s mobile - he’s way more sociable than I am, though still a long way from being a social butterfly.
Is there such a thing as a part-time misanthrope? I teach school, and really do enjoy it, most of the time. But after school, I’m done. If I go home and never say another word, I’m okay. On the weekends, my favorite thing is to curl up in my room, read, watch TV, and create jewelry. I don’t like to talk to people. After 20 years of marriage, my Herr understands. He talks, I listen and make encouraging noises. I don’t have any person I would consider a good friend except for mein Herr. I have dogs and a cat. And ten cockatiels and two lovebirds that are sitting on 10 eggs. She’s an overachiever. but that’s another thread.