I had an interesting situation happen on MeWe. A user there blocked me as a contact and from her page and the groups I joined. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, and it certainly didn’t make any sense to me. However, a prime suspect is something I posted on this blog that she may have found offensive. I’m not sure if I’ll ever know if I’m right, but so far it’s the only thing that makes sense.
I joined MeWe earlier this year, and since most of my friends outside of social media were on Facebook but not on MeWe, I had to build up my list of contacts primarily by connecting with complete strangers. One such person was a woman who also invited me to follow her page and join a couple of groups she manages. I joined the groups because they appeared to contain content that interested me. One of them was a Christian group, and the other was a group for those suffering from chronic illnesses. I also decided to follow her page. All the interactions I had with this person on MeWe were positive. She frequently reacted positively to the posts in my feed. I didn’t always get to read and post much in her groups, but I would do so here and there. I haven’t interacted much with my contacts on MeWe, but I interacted with her more than others.
One day, I shared a previous post from this blog in my news feed. She later responded with a thumbs-up, so I figured she probably read the post and liked it. Not long after that, I logged in to MeWe and saw that her two groups that I had joined were not in my list of groups in the chat window. They were normally at the top of the list because they stayed pretty busy. I thought it was strange, so I began to do some digging. I could not find the groups in searches. Since I still saw an icon for her in the section for stories, I just assumed we were still friends. I wondered why I could not find the groups. When I went to her profile page, I didn’t see much information there. I finally decided to check my contact list and didn’t see her name listed. When I opened a chat window with her that was still in my list, I saw that the chat had been closed and that I could not post any new messages. At that point, I could tell that we were no longer friends/contacts. When I searched the help center about the issue I was having with the groups, I concluded that I must have been banned and blocked from them. It was probably the reason I could not find them in searches. When I clicked on the Pages menu, I saw her page in the list. When I clicked on it, I saw that I had been banned from her page. By this point, I was flabbergasted. Why in the world would this person have gone so far to remove any sort of connection with me? All our interactions to that point had been positive. I had no idea there was even any hint of a conflict between us. When I first discovered the blocks/bans, it was about a day after I’d left an update in the chronic illness group about a doctor appointment I’d had that morning. Surely there wasn’t anything in that post that could have prompted such a response? I was very bothered, hurt, and confused. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I’m generally very easy-going on social media. I’ve only ever blocked one other person, and it was because he’d commented very disrespectful and insulting things on one of my posts. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve unfriended someone. Most of those were probably fake profiles. These are not actions I normally feel I have to take on social media. I’ve never had problems with my friends on social media for the most part, at least to my knowledge. Of course, they would post things I’d disagree with or find disagreeable in some other way, but we’re all different. I’d let them be and just keep scrolling. While I’ve been unfriended for one reason or another, to my knowledge, I’ve never been blocked, and I’ve never been banned from any pages. I’ve certainly not been banned from any groups.
In trying to figure out what could have been the cause of the total ban, I decided that it could not have been based on anything posted in MeWe. I don’t think anything there would have been found to be offensive in any sort of setting. I did have another social media account whose link I shared in MeWe, but when I paged through those posts, I didn’t see anything in those that she might consider offensive. I figured she was probably close to me on the issues I posted about there. That left me with my blog. I had no idea what could possibly be so offensive on my blog until I remembered this post. Perhaps she was an admirer of Ben Lynch and was upset that I dared to criticize his position on folic acid. While it seems like a stretch and while it most definitely could be something else entirely, so far it’s the only explanation that makes any sort of sense. I remember when researching MTHFR and folic acid that people seemed pretty emotional about the opinions surrounding them. I remembered reading about those questioning the orthodoxy that folic acid was bad having their posts deleted from certain forums. Also, the suspect post on my blog isn’t hard to access from the main page. The Copper Toxicity link is at the top of the page, and the post is linked within that page. To see if any offense caused by reading that article could be any sort of possibility, I logged into my WordPress dashboard to check my page stats. Sure enough, the suspect post had views within the previous week. While that doesn’t necessarily mean she herself had gone to that page, it definitely made the possibility more likely. I tried searching for her name in a general web search and on Facebook to see if I could find other profiles or a website which might hint at some kind of interest in MTHFR but could find nothing.
While I certainly hate the idea of any of my posts offending anyone, I’m certainly not going to take back anything that I’ve posted that’s the truth. At this point in time, I feel no reason to take back anything I’ve posted on folic acid, MTHFR, or Ben Lynch. I haven’t seen or read anything that would lead me to conclude that what I’ve posted is false or misleading. Considering how common MTHFR variants are in the general population, the wide availability and usage of folic acid compared to methylfolate, and my own personal experience, I stand by what I’ve posted. Folic acid has been used widely for many decades and is considered safe, even for those with the MTHFR variants. Anyone saying otherwise is at best misleading others. Of course, as with any health condition, there are exceptions, and those concerned about MTHFR and B-vitamin supplements should discuss their questions and concerns with their doctors, who should be able to determine the supplements that would work best for them. Anyone who benefits from methylated B-vitamin supplements should definitely continue to take them, but I certainly would not tell anyone not to take supplements like folic acid or cyanocobalamin as there is little to no evidence that these are harmful, even for those with MTHFR variants. Again, those with any questions or concerns should take them to their doctors.
I could be completely wrong about why this person decided to block me. It may be completely unrelated to this blog. However, if it was something she read here, I would certainly not change or take back anything I’ve written unless there’s sufficient actual evidence that what I posted was wrong. The truth can hurt and be offensive, but it’s important to tell it regardless.
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