I got blocked by Holly Wood

And the Death of Civil Discourse

Apparently disagreement is so disturbing in this the Age of the Social Media Echo Chamber that offering an opposing opinion is the same as trolling.

I was a follower of Holly Wood @GirlZipLocked for several months because I enjoyed her writing, particularly her Modern Day Harry Potter fan fiction. She was the reason I joined Medium in the first place, lured here by her skewering of Paul Graham. Her writing style is witty, edgy, and irreverent in the best tradition of comedic satirists like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

But then she started writing about my preferred presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. And all of a sudden I was seeing another dimension of Ms. Wood. Her libelous diatribes against Hillary reveal an irrational contempt for the woman. Furthermore, her scathing tirades describe some kind of unhinged murderess that in no way resembles the progressive champion I’ve admired for decades. For weeks this bothered me that a cultural commentator I hold in high regard should formulate opinions so diametrically opposed to my own. Worse, she apparently hates Hillary on a visceral level, as if she bears a personal vendetta against the presumptive nominee. I had to question myself: here’s an intelligent, educated person whose worldview is very similar to my own, yet her perception of Hillary appears disconnected from reality. Was I missing something?

So I started responding to her anti-Hillary stories in an attempt to find an answer. With measured calmness, purposefully trying to use big words and sticking to abstract concepts so as not to be accused of mansplaining, I countered her contentions. This went on for several weeks, where she would post some caustic rant in her ongoing smear campaign, and I would challenge the premise of her arguments. I had a few respectful and interesting exchanges with other Medium users who offered me a rebuttal, but from the illustrious Ms. Wood herself I was only ever told to, and I quote, “Go toss yourself.” This from a Harvard University educatee.

So now I’m left asking, what is so terribly wrong with a little civil discourse? Was Socrates so mistaken in his approach to learning that we now run afeard from any contrary sentiment? Is it at all reasonable to demand that all beliefs are homogeneous? If a Harvard doctoral student can’t tolerate diversity of opinion, just what kind of society are we becoming?