This. This exactly.

The evening before the weird internet outburst, I asked a friend to join me in a multiplayer game. He came on and said something like, “I didn’t know how disliked you were.”

I laughed because, well, I know. I definitely know. I asked him what he meant, and he said something like, “I was playing with a guy who really doesn’t like you and refused to play in this group.”

The only thing I remember replying to my friend was, “you should spread the word that the more cruel they are to me, the less likely I am to ever leave. Two of my good friends have been driven away because of the toxicity — and I’m not going to let them win and do that to me. Even if I hate the place, I’m staying till it shuts down if they keep this up.”

My friend wouldn’t say anything else about the man who disliked me — not what was said, not who it was — so it was happenstance I stumbled on the fact the person extolling his dislike of me in comments was the same man who also extolled his dislike of me in gaming voice chat. All I know is there seem to be some “deep, longstanding issues with you” pertaining to him — a hypothesis. I’ve done some digging. The man does “internet marketing” — so maybe it’s job-related, since we’re in the same field? Is it something I wrote here? Are you reading this right now, Mark? I learned your name because of your vitriol. It unsettles me I know it. Two days ago, you were a guy who gave me great feedback on how to upgrade me home entertainment sound system. Now you are Mark, the unsettling man who hates me so much on the internet for reasons I can’t fathom.

No one should hate like that.