> So if a person asks you a question you don't like you just don't answer? Totally ignore them?

Not ignore, per se. To ignore someone might involve continuing on about something else, for example, which is a much different thing than shutting up. Shutting up might involve making eye contact, raising an eyebrow. Perhaps a pained expression. Nonverbal communication.

> Am I missing something or does this seem rude and disrespectful?

It can be. Some of the questions are rude and disrespectful in their fundamental construction, so responding some in kind might be warranted. Hell, silence might be a hell of a lot more polite than called for.

But silence is not always rude and disrespectful. Consider for a moment a fool who's made an unreasonable ask or put their foot in their mouth. It might take them a moment for their brain to catch up with their mouth - perhaps after wondering a moment why you aren't asnwering, before they put themselves in your shoes and realize what they've done.

You might pause a moment to let them realize this for themselves, without having them suffer the added injury and injustice of you explaining, spelling out, and spoonfeeding their error to them as if they were incapable of realizing it for themselves, if only you'd be so decent as to just give them a moment. Or two. Letting them do their own self-critique may lessen their guard and defensiveness, as you won't come across as wanting to tear them down. Of course, this won't work well unless you can respect and trust the person to actually do such things.

In this case, if you squint hard enough, saying nothing could be seen as an extremely simplified version of the socratic method - the implicit question being perhaps "do you realize what you've just said/asked?" or "and what do you think I think about that?"

> In the case of one of their example questions. "Can you work for free?" Instead of ignoring them, how about "No, I can't do that. My policy is not to work for free"?

What the blog is suggesting only really works when communicating face to face, in person. But if someone asks me if I can work for free, and I simply stare at them, I think the most likely outcome is that they realize they've made a mistake by asking it and back peddle, or say something stupid.

My comment applies in most person to person contexts, face to face or otherwise.

> But if someone asks me if I can work for free, and I simply stare at them

Again, I think a better solution is to politely decline. It shows respect for the other person and I think it increases the likelihood of reciprocated respect. I don't see how ignoring them is better.

If somebody thinks they're better than you, their disrespecting you while you respect them is exactly what they expect. Staring silence shows that their expectation was wrong and they should reconsider.

It's a little confrontational, but when you do this in person you would usually do it while retaining eye contact. That is, you don't ignore them by staring out the window, you pay attention to them. Effectively asking them to either say something else or reconsider what they just said.

Disagreement/conflict is not necessarily rudeness. And "respect" has to go two ways; the silent non-response is often a good way to say "what you just said was vaguely insulting" (e.g. can you work for free) so I'm not going to dignify it with a response.