I've made a real effort in recent years to avoid getting into any political debates or arguments online, for what are probably obvious reasons to anyone who has ever engaged in them. So I was completely unprepared for the level to which online discussions had sunk in my absence.

I wouldn't ordinarily write an entire blog post about a conversation I'd had on Facebook – certainly not one as deeply stupid as this conversation became – but I think there's something important to be learned from this particular exchange. I see it as sort of a snapshot of what is going on all over the country right now. So I hope you'll bear with me.

Here's what happened: My friend (who I'll call "Veronique") wrote a post where she tried to explain the insensitivity of saying "all lives matter" in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, with an analogy to babies who have Down Syndrome:

"If I started a campaign/movement to save babies with DS from abortion and called it 'Down Syndrome Lives Matter' – would you be up in arms? Would you argue with me that all babies lives matter and try to negate my purpose in saving babies with Down Syndrome from the 92% selective abortion rate?"