Comment by geerlingguy

It's like if you live in a quiet suburb, and someone walks up to your window every night and starts yelling obscenities for an hour or two.

It can be ignored, yes, but the worst offenders go beyond a polite discourse and will send emails to whatever email they can find, DM you on Twitter, Mastodon, etc., and drop weird and annoying comments anywhere they think you have a chance of seeing them.

Some people have thicker skins than others, but it's just a bit tiresome no matter how much you can deflect.