I think what happened is that an individual that was angry, disappointed, misinformed, and possibly suffering from a bit of groupthink, was able to write and post something online before taking the time to process the information and calm down. If someone is in that state of mind and people start throwing hate at him/her, then they’re not likely change the individual’s mind, get the person to admit any fault, or calm down. If someone comes in with this mindset and you want to change their mind, then you have to approach the situation with some tact. Responding with sarcasm, anger, and name-calling is not likely to yield any positive results, only drive the person to dig in their heels or leave the conversation entirely. If someone comes into a situation and is misinformed, then an appropriate response would be to try to educate them on the situation. Yes, maybe they should have looked everything up on their own before posting something, but we’ve established that this person was likely in an emotional state (we’ve all been there) and people tend to do unwise things when feeling this way. If they are a troll, then at least you tried to help someone out before resorting to making them feel like a terrible person.
I don’t enjoy seeing people online act as if there is not an actual person on the receiving end of comments. Even if a person is in the wrong, I don’t like the idea of a person taking cheap-shots from people under the guise of educating him or her. If you want to help someone understand how their thinking was incorrect or how his or her reaction was out of proportion with the scope of incident, then someone is going to have to swallow their pride and resist the temptation to mix insults into what they say.
I am beginning to really enjoy this community, and I am going to assume that some of the negative and overly aggressive things people have said in threads like this one are not the norm for said individuals. I think it was a minority that thought throwing around accusation of mental illness, and I was happy to see that nipped in the bud by the community. If the person that posted the open letter does comes back here, let’s approach the situation with more grace. Hopefully we’ll receive the same.