I, too, dislike posts by trolls and some of the ranters.

How to handle posts by trolls and political ranters? Simple --
just do not click on any of them, or on posts by anyone whose
previous posts you did not like.

AP's software is great because it allows only individual
posts to be read when you click on them -- never entire
threads. This means no one ever has to read even one
word by anyone whose posts they do not want to read.

There is no way to avoid reading thread titles. And AP's
software does not allow it to have an "Ignore" button.

To me, AP still has many posts by many really great and
well-informed and interesting people. I just don't click
on posts by known trolls, or anyone else I do not like,
and I never, ever "feed" any of the trolls by posting
anything commenting on anything they post.