In short? No. There is almost no recourse. Your best bet is NEVER steemit.chat. Thats for sure!! However you do have a few friends in high places (not me but, you know) of whose vote is powerful enough to do some damage. That said, downvoting probably wont stop them. In fact, it will probably make it worse! the only way to defeat this stuff is for us to keep on trucking and doing our thing.. being who we are regardless of their asshattery. Steemit is a jungle and "you're on your own kid" is pretty much standard. But somehow, we are all able to focus on our little positive things we share with each other and it becomes this wonderful thing. Have the time i dont even know what other ppl are doing. Someone will tell me some whale or dolphin is being an asshat. sigh