One of the single most painful things I've seen on Twitter is good people being genuinely afraid to defend and support their friends, because they don't want the Twitter mob to come after them next.

I've seen it many times.

Genuinely good people get abandoned on here.

One of the only benefits of me being deeply despised across Twitter is that I no longer fear the Twitter mob so much that it makes me abandon my friends when they are trending.

It's a unique kind of pain to see your friends go silent out of fear that they'll be attacked.

About 4 years ago I saw a dear friend trending on Twitter, over an absolute lie. It was AWFUL.

Millions of people were chiming in against her.

I knew if I stood with her, that they'd come for me next.

And for the first time in my life I considered being silent and was ashamed.

I learned something pivotal 4 years ago, after really thinking about being silent while my friend was wrongly attacked on here.

Choose your friends.

I stood up for her the next day, and the mob came for me, as I expected. And it sucked.

But I never regretted it.