> how would people have reacted if this had been limited to large corporations you do not like?

Those large corporations we do not like have lawyers on retainer specifically to deal with this situation (probably by suing the pants off of whoever sent the email).

It is acceptable to react differently when the victim is defenseless. That is why we would have a different reaction to a large corporation being struck by this, versus an individual who may not be able to afford legal counsel (and who certainly can't afford to pay legal counsel when the threat turns out to be baseless).