Sorry to hear that, Cosmic. No one deserves to be abused for their point of view or leanings. In fact, I think that kind of abuse is the opposite of free speech. It's an attempt to bully opponents into silence, force them to shut down and hide.
Which makes it all the more important to hold one's ground and do it in an unconditionally patient and respectful way. We can say why we hold the views we do. We can point to the evidence of places in the world where the policies we like best have been proven to work very well, and show exactly how they work. We can refer to scholarly research, documentaries, YouTube and TED talks by experts.
Online environments for media and social sites have definitely multiplied the tendency for those with strong views to become more verbally abusive. The media encourage this, particularly those owned by the Murdoch empire. People flock to the news that reinforces their pre-existing bias, and they deliberately avoid examining and thinking about alternative opinions and arguments. In addition, I think education is going down hill. There is less emphasis on teaching people how to think analytically and creatively. This means people often don't read below the surface of doublespeak from politicians. They are too beguiled by personalities and pay not enough attention to policies and evidence of real character. And as we saw with the January riots, it doesn't take much to inspire violence and attacks on the seat of government and the systems of democracy itself.
We are a social species. Acceptance is an innate need for all but the most hermit-like and introverted. And, even for them, too much solitude is not always a healthy thing. There's plenty of evidence in psychology and sociology that verbal abuse can be traumatising, especially when continuously and frequently repeated.
I hope you have others on social media who support you and can soothe the discomfort.
But if you find the abuse gets too much, please report it to JA along with a screen shot of the particular instance. If a site becomes too aggressive or too full of trolls, it falls apart as people leave, as happened with EP.
This post was edited by inky at November 1, 2022 6:53 PM MDT
None, I'm a Democratic Socialist myself. Jesus was a Socialist, John the Baptist practically a Marxist. Compare "if you have two coats, give one to your brother who has none" (Lk 3: 11) with "from each, according to his means. To each, according to his needs" (Das Kapital).
Oh! And I have been ragged upon as being Socialist out of nowhere by the Conservative Christian right. 
