February 25, 2026

Something happened to me yesterday.

I opened Nextdoor for the first time in years; my original intention simply to figure out how to unsubscribe. But then, I started reading.

Someone was defending themselves after making a hard decision that a group of people labeled cruel. She wrote that she’d cried all night. She edited the original post to ask for mercy and understanding after an evening of piling on.

I felt an urge growing.

I wanted to dig in and read every cruel remark. My gut said: defend her. At the same time a smaller part questioned—what if she was wrong? What if she was backpedaling after being called out? Reading would tell me.

I stopped myself.