“Apostate,” she hissed in my face.

Almost certainly she didn’t know what apostate meant. And I knew she didn’t. But I wasn’t going to ask her. I knew if I asked her she would’ve run.Or worse.

“You’re woke,” he typed at me.

“Don’t you mean compassionate?” I typed back. My troll clearly saw ‘woke‘ as an insult. But when I pressed on what it really meant, he went silent, and changed the subject.

Perhaps the insulter didn’t know what the word meant. Unless ‘woke‘ means “anyone who disagrees with me.” Same as ‘apostate‘.Or ‘left‘.Or ‘right‘.

Or perhaps he or she knew that it’s a naughty bad word. And adults get upset when it’s said.

Same as the contrary former Twitter operative who told me, “quit the ad hominem sunshine“. Look up the meaning and enjoy!

He didn’t know what he meant either. Only that it was enough to insult. And that adults get upset when the bad word is said.

Unfortunately, I prefer words whose meaning I know. Words that elicit more words rather than ones that silence.

And people like my one-time walking companion who said, “I disagree with you”, and who kept walking with me even if it only was some of the same way.