The highlighted sentence is the big problem I have with ResetEra, Reddit, and these other big forum spaces. These are toxic communities because people create VERY decisive, extreme opinions of people they knew VERY little about. With people we know in real life, we often create nuance. For example, I love my mother, but there are also many things I have trouble forgiving her for (like her making my life miserable when I came out as gay). There is tremendous nuance and complexity in our relationship. I love her more than anything and yet she has caused me some of the biggest betrayal and pain in my life. Same with my spouse, I treasure him but he cheated on me 3 weeks into our relationship. Life and relationships are complex and nuanced.
On here you get none of that nuance. Someone reads an article where a YouTube celebrity says the "f___t" word in a manic episode and that person is now suddenly an evil, "canceled" person that needs to be mocked, hated, and labeled from then on. Almost 3 decades of life off the computer is not even able to be assessed properly. All that matters is the negative snapshots gobbled by the online channels. Even though using the f___t word is hateful and wrong, the internet and its gazing scrutiny has no time for nuance and complexity, it is instead immediately judgmental. One time I posted here that my dog doesn't like going on walks, and I got called a dog abuser or not taking him out on walks multiple times a day. This person knew nothing about my life nor the fact that my dog had heartworms and vets orders to NOT do exercise, now I'm a dog abuser because of one poster being the judge and jury of my life. Multiply that audience by thousands, and I can see why Etika felt trapped and shamed by a community that should have handled him differently considering he was both suicidal AND bipolar.
Just take a look at some of the threads here. Someone asks for advice and posts an OP with a limited summary of information and posters immediately scrutinize and judge every detail looking for thread backfire fodder and reasons to "gotcha" the OP.
It's so absurd. I don't expect communities to become non-toxic overnight so my best solution is just to remain very private, vague, and low-stress in topics on the internet, because it gets very ugly here and elsewhere