Do people actually get mad over that? Why?

So tell me, what do you call the object drawn in this picture, taken from a popular Linux operating system?

Say my name.

interchange them constantly , sometimes in the same sentence and watch the rage build

I call them folders (especially with normies) with no regret. Fight me!

I've been using nothing but Linux at home and work for 20 years and it's news to me that these words are not equal synonyms.

A folder is the visual representation of a directory. A reasonable desktop GUI exposes the underlying files & directories as file icons and directory windows. If your abstraction leaks, that's a bug in your code, not something to beat the other guy up with. It is quite possible to be both a Linux dork and a classic Mac dork.

You're all wrong. The official term is "foldirectory".

I think when I'm in terminal I call them directories but otherwise I'll click and open a folder in my file manager

Alternatively you fully commit to it and alias cf to cd

I say folder when I'm in gui environment and directory when in console. Win win

But they're called both in all operating systems. Windows command line has a dir command.

I use both terms. If I'm accessing it from a GUI, it's a folder. From the command line, it's a directory.

I am always conflicted because I can never tell if the person I am talking to know what a directory is.

I started out in the 90's calling them directories and still do for the most part. However, if I'm speaking to the average person I get a strange look when I say directory.

Everything is an inode :P