No Leah, it's not just you.

I left Facebook a few years back for this reason - and from what I hear it's only grown worse. I didn't use any other social media, still don't. I joined Medium as a paying member because, having been a reader here for a long time, I loved that it was about writing and writers. That there was the capacity for developing some form of community, but that the focus remained on writing. I wish I'd joined earlier, as since I did COVID and lockdowns have happened, jobs have been lost and financial need has driven a vast wave of people towards attempting to make money online...well, the whole atmosphere here has been shifting, getting personal (and not in a 'supporting other writers' sense), more competitive, more combative.

I can't see a solution, on a broad scale. I've personally took to just 'hanging out' in a couple of little corners of the site which have proven themselves to be pleasant places populated with pleasant people, head in the sand style.

On a personal note, I am so sorry for the things people said to you about your son. I'm no longer surprised by the cruelty of the pious, but this is an unconscionable low.