I'd first ask them why they hold the opinion. You might be surprised by the reasoning they have for saying this. Having strong opinions isn't necessarily a bad thing.

There's a time and a place, though, no? "Screw Elixir" might be fine as an opinion on its own, but in the same breath as "I would like a job"?

Exactly.

Right? I could easily list a few companies hiring Erlang developers, including the one I currently work for but that attitude is a big no-no for me.

You could say, "I don't want to work for a company using other languages on the BEAM VM" or "I considered Elixir and I don't like it because of X"

It just seems completely out of context and aggressive. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The fact that it's out of context and the tone is so different is what made me take it as not so serious and just a playful jab at Elixir.

I think the interpretation everyone seems to be taking (which is surprising to me personally!) is such that it's like Elon requiring people to put "Parody" in their name.

Having strong opinions is a great thing, expressing them in such a way is not. Especially if you expect to be taken seriously.

Yeah, the effects are not going as what I wanted I was just trying to focus the talks on the Erlang language because I'm already aware of the success and opportunities of the Elixir language.