David Hogg might be the most vilified person in right-wing media right now.

After surviving the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Hogg and his classmates became vocal activists in the fight for gun control, using their media spotlight to advocate for tougher gun laws.

That activism made them prime targets for the right-wing smear machine: a collection of Fox News hosts, conservative pundits, conspiracy theorists, Twitter provocateurs, and YouTube commentators who piled on the teens in the wake of the shooting.

Hogg in particular became the target of a wave of personal attacks and conspiracy theories, accusing him of being a “crisis actor,” an FBI apologist, and a budding fascist. In March, Fox News host Laura Ingraham even mocked Hogg on Twitter for being rejected from several colleges.

Those kinds of personal attacks are meant to wear down and break a target — to push a public figure out of public life by bombarding them with a never-ending avalanche of smears and accusations.

But rather than caving under the pressure, Hogg and his friends have flourished, using humor, restraint, and public pressure to engage strategically with their trolls. That approach has paid off, earning the Parkland students months of earned media coverage for their cause while helping marginalize their critics. In the face of intense media scrutiny and right-wing smears, these students are putting on a masterclass on how to deal with bullies.

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