This places the target of the attack in a dilemma. Allow the falsehoods to issue unchallenged, and you can see your reputation — built up over decades of writing, litigation, and activism — left in tatters in large quadrants of the conservative movement. Respond, and the attackers cheer their ability to provoke you. They thrill to their ability to trouble you enough to trigger an answer. Even worse, each public attack from the people with larger platforms triggers swarms of additional personal attacks often made in steadily darker terms, culminating in zombie elements of the alt-right lurching up to take their shots.

/ sounds like tje neighborhood civic club