Chris Monks is McSweeney’s editor. Over on Vulture, he goes into his email load for article submissions. 200-300 submissions a week, which he reads and responds to every one of them within a week. Hence his rejection emails are basically one liners like

This doesn’t fail to amuse, but I’m afraid I’m going to pass. Thanks for the look, though. Hope you’ll keep trying.

To which he gets responses like “pansies”.

The correct answer?

Being a jerk works against your own interest, because in all likelihood, an editor will no longer consider your work for their site. There are tons of other writers who are able to come to terms with a “no” and carry on with their writing lives. An editor will continue to focus their attention on those folks and leave you and your jerky wallowing by the wayside (i.e., the spam box). So, the safest choice is to put down the can of gas and box of matches and let the bridge stand by not replying to a rejection altogether.