I agree with you that many act like sociopaths, but that doesn't make them true ones for sure... I avoid using any kinda of labels for people i do not know in person... Especially when it comes to Inet... 'cause the Inet is the perfect place for people to play roles...
Actually we all know that fighting trolling is a hard and long pursuit... Though i do not entirely agree with you that an ignored troll is an escalating one... He is triple times an escalating troll if you ban him/close his thread/delete his post etc...
Probably we all should make some efforts not noticing trolling posts... In time they will get less I am sure... and it is not an idealism...

BTW a very simple tech feature helps too... Some forums do not allow you to make another post if you are the last that have posted on the thread (mostly it is done client side but still it helps). This way if a troll doesn't get answers on his thread he cannot make the thread show up as active... Anyway it is just a proposal...

As for the idealism and realism... Its good to be an idealist but not so good to become a mod that way... 'cause it will lead to disappointments and there is only one small step to hard handed moderation from there