It depends in what situation you are in and also whether you are alone in whatever action you decide to take. There was a situation as I was journeying to work this morning, the bus driver picked up an uncouth foulmouthed unreasonable (idiot) man who claimed the bus drove right past him and he had to run to catch it but this was impossible as the driver was at this particular pick-up point actually before his scheduled time and waiting. But there was no reasoning with the man at all and it could have turned really ugly, bearing in mind the driver had a bus load of people onboard who were on their way to their jobs that he had a responsibility to keep safe too. On this occasion he was right to say as little as possible for the short distance the man was going and probably report the incident later. The alternative was to refuse taking him altogether because of his bad language and attitude but then he was already aboard making a fuss, of course passengers just wanted to get to their destinations regardless of the principles of the thing so in turn remained silent.

- walk away
- remain silent *or as little as possible*
- respond in kind
- use violence
- use friendly verbal persuasion
- use threatening verbal persuasion
- use humorous verbal response
- etc.

What I really wanted to do was another thing.