I work from home so I spend more time online than I should. Some of my social media groups overlap with a few people from my old pre-sociopath groups, so every once in a while, I will see nasty comments from people I don’t know who have been listening to gossip through the grapevine.
Every few months, I will be minding my own business and participating in a Facebook discussion, and someone I don’t know and with whom I have never interacted replies to insult me. Well, I know about trolls on the internet…. According to research, they are more likely to be sociopaths. So when one tries to insult me out of the blue, I already know how that is going to end.
Please, dude. I survived a sociopath in real life. Your attempts to insult me are going nowhere!
Anyway, it happens fairly frequently, and it’s usually tied to someone that’s been hearing stories from the narcopath or his flying monkeys. If I reply at all, it’s minimal, but I usually don’t because, well, sociopaths are gonna sociopath. I don’t play that game. It’s a waste of time.
I jump into touchy debates online, but I never turn to name-calling or insults. So as a civilized person 😉 I’m still surprised when some wannabe bully just comes along and insults me. Not even on topic, but just randomly insults me. It’s always specifically targeting me. As I responded to one earlier “your behavior says more about you than it does about me.” Because of course, I don’t show up in a post reply just to call someone names or make personal attacks. That’s just crazy behavior!
The truth is, there is no need to argue with these people. They will just spin you around in their own web of crazy games and gas lighting, then twist the argument around until it doesn’t make sense. They don’t *want* to make sense. They want to make trouble. So I move along and ignore them. The weirdo trying to pick a fight with me tonight was mocking me and asking why I wouldn’t answer his questions. Why should I? I don’t know this guy. I don’t want to know this guy. He’s behaving like he’s disordered, and at best, he’s acting like a junior high bully who wants to drag someone else down to feel bigger. So I ignored his questions. I’ve seen this type before.
There is never any reason to argue with a disordered person, or to let them put you on the defense by getting dragged into their anti-social behavior.