From The Brothers Karamazov:
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself. The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than any one. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn’t it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill–he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it, and so pass to genuine vindictiveness.”
This pleasure in taking offense and revelling in resentment explains the way in which anklebiters will continue their delusional hate campaigns for years. The hatred they feel is not only justified by the imaginary offenses of those they hate, it gives a perverse pleasure to them. This is why it is totally pointless to respond to their demands or even to pay any attention to them, as it is the taking offense that is the entire point of the exercise for them. Once the nominal issue is successfully addressed, they will simply move the goal posts and take offense at something else, in order to keep feeding their emotional addiction.