I'm convinced that refusing to respond is more aggressive behavior than getting up and bitching somebody out. Everybody involved knows that the message is hanging out there. It's at least been received, if not read. It is a presence between the parties.

And it's left to float. That's the ultimate powerplay, deciding not even to acknowledge the fact of the outreach. It's withholding even the courtesy of noticing someone's existence, treating the sender as completely irrelevant or nonexistent. Even a 'fuck you' response would be more friendly and polite, by accepting that the person is there and has sent something.

This isn't talking about routine email, although I have a similar issue with those who routinely disregard messages rather than trouble themselves to send a negative response. But this is about important communications intended to address serious situations. To disregard something like that is to wish the sender away -- not just to wish they would die but that they had done so before troubling you with the message.

I'll put up with a lot, but not with something as profoundly dismissive as that.