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What We Can Learn: If you're a public figure, you may get parodied on social media. It might be malicious, but most likely whoever's behind the fake account just likes to hang out and joke around on Twitter dot com. Rule number one, then, for being famous or semi-famous, is Don't Get Mad.This will give you peace of mind, but there's a more practical reason for ignoring jokesters: Nothing riles up satirists like cracking down on satire. The SWAT raid, for instance, led to more Ardis parodies, and at least one of them—featuring a photo of Ardis with a Hitler stache—is still active.For more on that scandal: How a Power-Mad Illinois Mayor Launched a Police Crusade Against a Parody Twitter Account
Recommended: Meet the Man Behind @DadBoner
Case Study: Ice T is great at Twitter. The hip-hop legend and acclaimed Law and Order: SVU actor's tweets straddle the line between insanity, self-awareness, and absurdism, placing him in the ranks of Celebrity Weird Twitterers along with Cher and Jose Canseco. Recently, Ice poked the slumbering, misandry-averse bear that is the #gamergate community by admitting he didn't know about #gamergate. After going back and forth with gamers, Ice, who's been a voice actor in several games and is an avowed gamer himself, told one of them to eat a dick.What We Can Learn: Ice T is no stranger to conflict—he literally invented gangster rap—so it's no surprise he takes to internet fights like a duck to water. Sometimes, there's something lurking inside of us that physically compels us to respond to the haters and losers.Eat A Dick…. What did that do to YOUR gamer cred.. Lol — ICE T (@FINALLEVEL)August 27, 2015
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Facebook fights are never about the person you're fighting with—they're about demonstrating your rightness publicly to the people who already agree with you. You're not trying to convince the other person of anything, you're only performing your political identity so you can be validated by the people who also hate Republicans/Congress/GMO foods.So what should you do when someone you care about posts something that you hate? You could ignore it, accepting your differences as the price of admission for that friendship. Or you could voice your disagreement in a respectful reply that makes it clear to your followers where you stand. Or you could just make the conversation private—Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift talked on the phone after they sniped at each other on Twitter about the VMAs, and now it seems like they're friends again. The inherent falseness of celebrity feuds and friendships aside, never underestimate the value of calling someone up and talking to them with your voice.Even better, you could refrain from giving in to your egocentric impulses and responding negatively to anyone online in any way, shape, or form, ever. It takes two to tango, even on the internet, and as the poet Lil Jon once said, "Don't start no shit, there won't be no shit."Follow Drew on Twitter.On Noisey: It's the Ten-Year Anniversary of Realizing Garden State Sucked Sucked