It's pretty easy to pick the contractors out from the permies based on comments.

There's comments based on a complete lack of understanding of how contracting works or comments based on some sort of unexplainable (to me) dislike of contractors. Or there's people who are contractors who don't like having an agreed rate changed underneath them.

I don't get the comments about contractors being fair to middling, or lazy work shy layabouts or whatever. They've almost all been permies in the past, and in my experience it's only the better permies that make the leap to contracting.

I've worked with a few who've been below par, but I've worked with far more who were at least average or better.

Definitely some bitterness from the permies that couldn't make it as contractors though, either through ability or lack of cohones.