I'm going too long here but the point is folks being silenced, harassed, etc in spaces claiming to be part of the public sphere is not new; folks leaving to create their own alternative spaces for deliberation is not new; this is the reality of public struggles over communication, power & difference

Habermas himself has acknowledged this but importantly decades of scholars and critics have pointed to the fact that the very nature of inequality and power in modern society means there is no space were ALL people or citizens have been able to engage in deliberation and debate on equal footing