I generally can not. On many forums, there are special areas where personal insults are allowed. Sometimes users insult me just for stating Politically Incorrect facts or opinions they strongly disagree with.
I would say I am good at handling insults. If it is "unjistified", I will just laugh it off and - sometimes - respond with the same means and if it is completely out of the blue, I will just ignore it. If someone uses an insult in a whitty and sophisticated way, baked into an argument, I will be like; "I like this guy!" Those are my favourite kind of people (given that they won't become aggressive when you do the same back). I am here only talking about "online-insults". How I handle them "irl", I am not too sure since it was a very long time ago I was insulted by someone "irl".
Rarely do I take something personally. But I can't stand arrogant jerks or nasty people, so I put them in their place. Sometimes they are even smart enough to know they have been insulted.
One of things I say to people with whom I have absolute disagreement is that I am not at liberty to state my opinion on them
To a large degree Internet arguments rob participants of their dignity. Thus I have to return negative psychic energy.
Criticism I can take, and do, enthusiastically. There is, however, no room, or justification, for personal insults in discussions conducted by adults. If you insult me, you can expect to be placed on the ignore list and reported.
Many forums allow insults in specially designated subforums. Twitter and Facebook are mildly moderated.
Don't do that. I helped to build a major forum back in the old days. You learn to love the hate mail. I was even threatened a few times. Those were my favorites.
I guess I am evolving from Homo Sapiens to Homo Interneticus -- thus things unacceptable for Homo Sapiens are becoming acceptable to me.
Every now and then I forget myself and what I've been through. But then I remember: Almost nothing I used to worry about really matters. You get one life - one shot. Don't waste it being angry over bs.
Yes. It's one of my very few talents. I even encourage it via my 'social role playing'. By that I don't mean I'm a masochist, I mean my preference for playing the uninformed innocent encourages feelings of self-satisfaction and confidence in others (the very reason I do it), and this sometimes turns into careless arrogance. Of course, I'm speaking of RL. The innernet is entirely non-insulting. I don't think I've felt any genuine insult online for years. The last time was at the hands of someone considerably smarter than me, so it stung.
I get insulted by some here at the Forum. If a poster seems to want to do nothing else I consider them a troll and a waste of my time so, I generally ignore them. Life is too short.
usually the people that resort to insults know their position is undefendable, so they attack others instead... sad!
Yes, I can be, and I usually am. I don't get angry at words on a screen from people I don't even know. Why on earth should I care what they say?