I find your descriptive choice of 'auto pilot' interesting..it suggests a pre arranged sequence..perhaps by a 'source' that has mastered the processes of cause and effect.
Letting them bring out the worst of one is not much different from what they're doing..
I let them finish their shpill and then bless them and hand them some money..lol
We are all each others teachers and lessons..to understand the karmic process is to embrace the change from those lessons. Elitist or superior thought is not helpful and we are all best served by not becoming attached to their negativity.. we learn our most valuable lessons from adversaries and...
Leave it where you found it..why would you become attached to something so negative and unbalanced..
One does not 'have to' absorb what is out in this world..it is a choice.