Establishing boundaries in the Wild West of social media platforms
The phrase “keyboard warriors” has become a familiar one. It refers to those people who drop into a comment thread with instant certainty and a sharp edge, often without any real intention of understanding what they are responding to. Their instinct to comment is marked by anger, rudeness, arrogance, self-appointed expertise, and a desire to provoke.
If you run social media for anything related to health, acupuncture, or wellbeing, you will know the pattern well. You publish a thoughtful post, and within minutes a stranger arrives to forthrightly declare that it is all nonsense. No evidence. No self-awareness. No basic courtesy. A troll. Unfortunately, these trolls don't turn to stone when you shine a light on them. They enjoy the attention and just keep on coming.
This article is not written to win arguments. It is written to explain why those comments are handled the way they are here, and why social media spaces associated with this business are curated with care. It is also about something larger than acupuncture. It is about how people behave online, how those behaviours shape what we all see, and how easily conversation turns into noise.
The real world this is happening in
These comments rarely come from people who sincerely follow this work. They appear under Facebook and Instagram ads, boosted posts, and anything that travels beyond its usual audience. That is the nature of modern platforms. They push content far beyond the people who asked to see it, and some of those people arrive already primed to object.
The pattern is consistent. A short dismissal appears instead of a question. “Rubbish.” “Bullshit.” “Doesn’t work.” Often it is accompanied by a claim that the person has “done the research,” even when what follows makes it clear they have only looked within a narrow, pre-decided frame. Frequently it isn’t entirely clear that they’ve done any research or even thought about it at all.
Sometimes I am the lucky recipient of extended tirades, often bringing in reference to other therapies I don’t even practise, all couched in a sneering, condescending, and completely unacceptable tone. What is missing is curiosity. What is missing is basic human respect.
This matters for two reasons. First, it degrades the tone for everyone else reading. Someone who is interested in acupuncture or curious about their own health now has to read through contempt and sneering before they get to anything useful. Second, it pulls attention away from the people who are actually here to learn, to ask, or to seek help.
Disagreement is not the problem; bad faith is
It is important to be clear about this from the start. Genuine disagreement is not unwelcome here. In healthcare, it is necessary. Skepticism is healthy when it is paired with humility, real questions, and a willingness to look at evidence and experience.
What crosses the line is something else. It is the difference between asking how something works and declaring that it cannot possibly work. It is the difference between careful doubt and ridicule. Insults, unfounded certainty, and performative comments aimed at provoking rather than understanding do not move a conversation forward.
There is also a structural problem at play. Social media flattens everything. Everyone’s an expert. Years of training, clinical experience, and professional regulation appear on screen with exactly the same weight as a stranger who has never opened a medical text and has no intention of doing so. Pointing that out is not about ego. It is about the basic conditions needed for any serious public discussion.
Why I no longer engage
There was a time when I replied to these comments. I answered politely, explained the evidence, and tried to model a thoughtful, courteous, and professional tone for anyone else reading. Naïvely, I took the view that people were entitled to their opinions, even if they are deluded or lacking insight or good information. And they are entitled to their opinions. But they are not entitled to daub them so vehemently and discourteously across my front door.
This is not a democracy. It is a shop window for the business I work hard to build, and I reserve the right to curate it and cultivate the kind of conversations and tone that add value, rather than just pushing emotive buttons.
So, experience changed my initial view. People who comment in bad faith don’t change their minds. They are not there to be informed. They are there to perform certainty and massage their own egos. The time cost is real, and that time comes from somewhere. It comes from attention to patients, from writing and researching, and from the work that actually helps people.
The disconnect
There is such a bizarre disconnect between my everyday experience of work in clinic, and being met by these unsolicited rage comments on social media. In clinic I see people benefit hugely from treatment for an enormous spread of conditions, and derive great professional reward from being so trusted and privileged to help others by standing on the shoulders of all the Chinese medicine practitioners that have gone before me. Then I check the latest Instagram comment to be faced with someone popping up out of nowhere taking unnecessarily vehement exception to the perfectly reasonable and well-supported information I’ve shared. That misalignment between seeing acupuncture helping people first-hand every day and then reading bombastic comments about how it’s all nonsense and helps no one is an odd thing to process.
In some ways I’d like to invite these commenters into clinic to educate them on what I do, how it works, and the positive results I overwhelmingly see. But of course, they wouldn’t accept as they prefer to remain in their imperious towers of unassailable, performative pontification. The armchair experts fortify themselves in their borrowed confidence and unexamined authority, and revel in continuing to fling mud at whatever appears in their sights to disturb their narrow world view. Their position, I’ve realised, remains entrenched whatever argument or evidence you offer to the contrary. They cherry pick evidence to support their claims, whilst ignoring vast swathes of evidence, and sometimes self-evident truths, too.
The policy now is straightforward. I do not debate hostile commenters. Comments that are abusive, derailing, or posted in bad faith are deleted immediately, with zero tolerance and zero engagement. These spaces are curated. It is not a public debating society, and it is not meant to be.
They would never say it in real life
Most of these comments would never be spoken face to face. The distance of a screen changes how people behave. Psychologists describe this as the online disinhibition effect. Drivers know it as road rage. When there is no immediate social consequence, and people feel anonymous and protected, impulses surface more easily, and normal social boundaries dissolve.
People don’t generally push in front of each other and swear and gesture whilst walking along the pavement. But as soon as they get behind the wheel a different set of rules can apply. It’s the same story online. Sadly, we see some of the worst sides of human beings – pride, self-importance, moral certitude, contempt, and downright rudeness.
Social platforms amplify this. They reward quick certainty and hot takes. They train people to react rather than reflect. Over time, that shapes how people speak, even to total strangers online. It seems nobody stops to consider that perhaps the person they’re railing at has some knowledge or experience they do not – that just maybe there are things they don’t know. Or that perhaps the person on the receiving end of their bombardment might have considered the ideas that they raise already.
But these comments are never framed as a question. There is no humility, no curiosity; only knee jerk vitriol and sarcasm dressed up as education and expert opinion, while simultaneously offering no credentials nor taking any responsibility for their words.
I sometimes wonder if they ever notice that overwhelming majority of responses to posts are positive reactions, whilst they land in the small group who leave angry emojis, or the even smaller group who leave outraged or self-righteous comments? Perhaps they are blessed with a piercing eye for truth that others are not…
The self-reinforcing outrage loop
It is hard to talk about online hostility without mentioning the mechanics that reward it. Anger and contempt drive engagement. Engagement signals interest. The algorithm responds by showing more of whatever triggered that reaction in the first place.
Over time, people can end up living inside a tailored feed that continually escalates their irritation. They see more of what frustrates them, which keeps them in a reactive state, which then trains the platform to give them even more of it. That cycle does not only distort what they believe. It also shapes how they feel day to day.
Hostile commenting is often a form of self poisoning. It does not make someone more discerning. It simply keeps them activated. It has an attritional effect on their nervous system, their health as a whole, and on the people around them.
There is always a healthy alternative available: scroll past. Don’t engage with what infuriates you. Save your energy. Maintain your cool. Just keep your thoughts to yourself and move on. Just because something appears in front of you doesn’t mean you have to wade in. Better still, put the phone down and do something creative and fulfilling with your time. Something that brings you joy, not anger.
The irony: the loudest critics may be the very people who could benefit
There is an irony here that is difficult to ignore. Many of the most aggressive comments read like they are written from a nervous system that is already under strain. You see it in the tone and the urgency. You see it in the hair trigger certainty. You see it in the lack of pause.
Anger is a natural and necessary emotion when it’s justified, controlled, and well-directed. It’s normal and healthy to express it. But the sort of anger we see online is invariably disproportionate, wildly judgmental, and entirely uncalled for. You can disagree. But disagree respectfully. Speak. But also listen. If your position is one of cultural bias, wilful ignorance, and reactive or performative name-calling, then I can’t help you.
I am not claiming certainty about anyone’s health from a comment thread. That would be irresponsible. I am noting a broad pattern that applies far beyond acupuncture: reactivity has a cost. It lands somewhere. It affects sleep, digestion, pain, mood, and resilience. The body keeps a score of how often it is pushed into fight or flight.
Approaches that help people settle, restore steadier regulation, and soften that constant bracing are often the very things these commenters reject most strongly. That is the irony. Some of the people most hostile toward acupuncture may be among those who would benefit from it, if they could step out of reflex and into curiosity.
A TCM lens on impulsive lashing out
Chinese medicine has its own language for these patterns. When people are stuck in frustration, become easily irritated, and react quickly without a reflective pause, we often talk in terms of Liver Qi constraint. When that constraint escalates, the language shifts toward heat, and sometimes toward what is traditionally described as Liver Fire. The theme is not moral failing. The theme is strain that has lost its ability to move and release smoothly.
This is one reason Chinese medicine places such value on regulation and flow. Smoothness and pause are virtues in health and in speech. A moment of reflection before reacting is, in a very practical sense, good internal hygiene. It changes the nervous system state that a person feeds, and it changes the quality of the world they help create around them.
The clinical reality: what I see every week in clinic
This is where my confidence comes from. Not from marketing, not from ideology, and not from the desire to defend a profession online. Not even from research or the impressive history of this ancient medicine. It comes from results.
People pay hard earned money for acupuncture because it helps them. They would not keep coming back if it did not. They are not paying for an abstract belief system. They are paying because something shifts. Sometimes it is symptom relief. Sometimes it is steadier sleep, calmer anxiety, fewer headaches, improved digestion, or reduced pain. Sometimes it is the gradual unpicking of a long-standing pattern that has affected their health for years.
The spectrum is broad. Some people come to make a long-term condition more manageable. They want fewer flare ups, less intensity, and more capacity to live their lives. Others come because symptoms are wearing them down and they want them reduced, even if nothing else changes. Some come because they have tried a great deal already and are out of options. They arrive saying, in plain terms, that they are desperate.
Very rarely is it a quick fix. Often it requires persistence. That can mean weeks. It can mean months. In more chronic or complex cases it can mean longer. That is not unique to acupuncture. It is how deep change tends to work in physiology. Sometimes we see quick results, occasionally verging on the miraculous; but the most common picture is one of perseverance and gradual progress.
The root of real change
The nature of change is also worth describing plainly. Over time, treatment can help shift the internal environment. It can support nervous system regulation. It can improve how systems communicate and coordinate, so the body restores function instead of endlessly compensating. People often find that when sleep improves and stress physiology settles, other issues begin to move as well. Pain becomes less sticky. Digestion becomes less fragile. Cycles become less chaotic. Recovery becomes more reliable.
Acupuncture is not a panacea. It does not help everyone. No medicine does. If acupuncture were a miracle cure, it would be the first stop in primary care globally. But that doesn’t mean it’s not effective. Clients regularly attend as a last resort, having tried medication and every other therapy under the sun, and are amazed when within a few sessions stubborn conditions begin to shift. Acupuncture doesn’t require belief. It requires commitment and patience.
My experience, and the reason I continue to do this work, is that it helps the majority of people who come through the door. In some cases it helps in ways that are genuinely transformative. Where medications often disguise symptoms and simply help manage a condition, without meaningful underlying change, acupuncture and herbal medicine can alter a person’s internal environment, physically and emotionally, and actually get to the root of a problem and truly heal. If I did not see that, week after week, I would not do the work.
There is another practical point that is easy to miss. If acupuncture were nonsense, it would not produce results. Patients would not return. Clinics would fold. The profession would not survive on goodwill alone, not across towns and cities, not across generations, and not across countries. It stands after all these centuries because it works often enough for people to keep choosing it.
It is not “just anecdote”: recognition, guidelines, and the evidence base
Alongside clinical experience sits an increasingly substantial research base. This is not about claiming that scientific authority proves truth. It is about correcting the claim that acupuncture is automatically fringe, unstudied, or universally dismissed.
NICE guidance is one part of that landscape, in the areas where it has issued recommendations related to acupuncture. The World Health Organization has also discussed and catalogued the use of acupuncture across a wide range of conditions historically considered within its scope. These are not perfect institutions. No institution is. Yet the point remains that acupuncture has been examined and taken seriously by mainstream bodies.
Research also continues to evolve. There are high quality trials, systematic reviews, and ongoing studies about mechanisms, optimal protocols, and who benefits most. That is what a living field looks like. It does not mean every claim is true. It does mean it is not reasonable to speak as if there is “zero evidence” and the matter is closed. There is lots of evidence, and it’s not hard to find.
Longevity and evolution: why this medicine exists at all
There is also a larger context that often goes unmentioned by casual dismissers. Chinese medicine did not appear overnight. It emerged from very old ways of relating to illness and the natural world, including animistic and shamanic roots that were common across many early cultures.
Over centuries, those roots were refined into something increasingly systematic, clinical, and codified. Observation, trial and error, debate, and practical experimentation shaped what survived. The Huangdi Neijing, often translated as the Yellow Emperor’s Classic, written more than two millennia ago, is one landmark in that long process of codification and development – not a sudden beginning.
That process of refinement did not stop. It continued through successive dynasties, through medical lineages, through the integration of herbal medicine, acupuncture, and manual therapy, through dissemination into other countries and cultures, and through the realities of treating real patients. Medicine, at its best, is an inheritance of what proved useful.
"Alternative" medicine?
It is also worth stating something obvious. Human beings do not keep hold of things that do nothing, not for centuries, and certainly not at scale. Practices survive because they produce enough value to be transmitted, refined, argued about, and taught. This does not mean every historical claim is correct. It does mean that the casual assumption of “hocus pocus” is lazy. It ignores the way real medical traditions develop. Chinese medicine is not a shared fantasy; it is a serious and pragmatic system based on observation and practice.
In many parts of the world, acupuncture is not treated as “alternative” at all. It is integrated into hospitals and mainstream care, most obviously in China, and increasingly in other countries. It has spread globally because people have continued to find it useful. Dismissing it as modern wellness fashion, or grouping it with other “alternative” therapies that do not share acupuncture’s long history and immense wealth of wisdom, shows a lack of historical awareness as well as a lack of curiosity.
Why misunderstandings persist: translation, metaphors, and cultural distortion
So why does the “mumbo jumbo” perception persist? Aside from lazy preconceptions, a large part of it comes down to translation and metaphor. Qi language is often functional and descriptive, pointing toward patterns of activity, movement, transformation, and regulation. It is not automatically a claim about supernatural energies. Yet when those terms are lifted out of their cultural and clinical context, or translated poorly, they can sound mystical, even to well meaning readers.
Misunderstanding is then amplified by cultural distance, cultural bias, and internet attitudes. Add echo chambers and a “debunk” culture that cherry picks weak examples, and the picture becomes distorted quickly. People are shown the worst, the silliest, or the most exaggerated framing of Chinese medicine, and then they treat that as the whole field.
The truth is out there...
I have even seen commenters claim they have spent decades studying Chinese medicine, only to conclude that there is zero clinical or scientific evidence and that it is not real medicine. If that were true, it would raise a strange question. Why spend decades studying something purely in order to dismiss it, with no apparent interest in understanding it? It is an odd use of a life, and if true it betrays an approach of seeking to prove preconceived notions – hardly scientific. I am disinclined to believe such claims, especially when they are offered without any evidence at all.
The research is out there. Much of it is in the public domain, although some of it unfortunately sits behind paywalls like much medical research. But it does not take heroic effort to find serious sources. What it does take is willingness and an open mind. And a mind that seeks to prove itself wrong rather than to simply confirm its own beliefs. That’s the scientific method, after all. Instead, what we see is confirmation bias spread lazily with no self-awareness whatsoever.
A necessary honesty check: poor practice exists in every field
It is also important to say something plainly, because avoiding it would be dishonest. Not every practitioner in the history of Chinese medicine has been an angel. Every healthcare field contains a small number of people who overstate, exaggerate, and drift into wishful thinking. Chinese medicine is no different.
Some practitioners have leaned into fanciful, pseudo scientific mysticism. Some market “energy healing” in ways that are designed to appeal to people’s desire for miracles and magic. In the worst cases, that crosses into exploitation. I do not defend that, and I do not practise that way.
Here is the distinction I care about. Chinese medicine can include spirit and inner life without becoming fantasy. It can address emotion without dressing itself up as supernatural. The Five Spirits and the holistic person matter in clinical work, because human beings do not separate into mind and body neatly in real life. We are a complex whole, not separate parts. Yet that work still needs grounded thinking, careful observation, ethical boundaries, and honest language.
It is also worth emphasising something that gets lost online. Those irresponsible practitioners are a tiny minority. The vast majority of acupuncturists are highly trained, ethical, and serious about their craft. They engage in CPD, belong to professional bodies, follow safety standards, and practise because the work is genuinely rewarding when you see people improve. Most people enter this profession to help, not to exploit gullibility.
Digital hygiene: boundaries as a form of health practice
This brings me back to the practical reason for writing this blog. Curating an online space is a form of hygiene. It is like keeping a clinic clean, calm, and safe. Environment matters.
You would not allow someone to shout abuse in a waiting room. You would not permit someone to walk into a treatment space and insult other patients. Social media is not a sacred free speech arena. My platform is a professional space with a purpose, and it is reasonable to maintain basic standards. If you write “scammer” or “snake oil” below my post, I consider that slanderous graffiti and you will be blocked and your comment deleted without engagement. It shows no understanding of acupuncture, no understanding of me as a practitioner, and no understanding of the context in which you are commenting. Scrawl insults on someone’s front door and you can expect them to be summarily removed.
So the policy is simple. Sincere questions are welcome. Civil disagreement is welcome. Abuse, derailing hostility, and misinformation posted as certainty are removed. That is not a personal vendetta against sceptics. It is a boundary that protects the usefulness of the space.
Skepticism vs cynicism: discernment without blockage
It helps to name the difference that often gets blurred. Scepticism is careful. It is questioning. It is willing to look at evidence and experience, and it leaves room for being surprised. Cynicism is closed. It is identity driven certainty that treats dismissal as intelligence.
Discernment sits in a healthier place. It asks better questions. It notices complexity. It looks at the whole picture rather than chasing confirmation for an opinion that was already decided. That approach is valuable in medicine, and it is valuable in how we speak to each other.
Some hostility online comes from stress, fear, pain, or the experience of feeling unheard by healthcare. Some people have had disappointing experiences with a different therapy, or perhaps with acupuncture, and now generalise that disappointment. Some are simply hurt and exhausted, and the internet becomes a place to vent.
I can hold that possibility in mind without giving it control of the conversation. Understanding someone’s stress does not obligate me to host their behaviour. Compassion does not mean tolerating disrespect, and it does not mean turning a comment section into a battleground. My focus remains on helping people who are ready to engage respectfully, whether that engagement begins as curiosity, doubt, or cautious interest.
Karma, reciprocity, and what we put into the world
There is a simple truth that appears across cultures, even when the language differs. The tone and intention you put out tends to shape what comes back, socially and psychologically.
Hostility cultivates more hostility. It trains the nervous system into vigilance and contempt. It also shapes the social environment, because other people absorb that tone and respond to it in kind. Thoughtfulness and restraint create different conditions. They support steadier minds and more useful conversations.
That is one reason I choose to remove derailing negativity rather than feed it. I would rather contribute something constructive than become part of the outrage machine.
Closing position: what you can expect going forward
Here is the position, clearly stated. I have great confidence in this medicine. There is both the longevity of the practice and the wealth of good research supporting acupuncture – and the evidence base continues to grow exponentially. Yet the deeper foundation of my confidence is clinical. I see results week in, week out. If I did not, I would not do this work.
It is also worth stating the obvious. If acupuncture were nonsense, nobody would improve. Clinics would not last. Patients would not return and recommend it to friends and family. A profession cannot survive for long on placebo and persuasion alone, not across cultures and generations. Exploiting vulnerable people is not just unethical; it’s also a very poor long-term business model. Acupuncture stands the test of time for a reason.
I will not spend professional time arguing with bad faith hostility. Nor will I tolerate people who think it’s okay to effectively defecate in my shop window. This article is intended to express my thoughts and state my position. I realise it likely won’t reach the ears it’s meant for, but it at least sets some boundaries publicly and allows me to concentrate on clinical work and furthering my skills and knowledge as a practitioner. If anyone queries why their comment has been redacted, I can direct them here instead of wasting time writing replies to people acting in bad faith.
A healthy discourse
For those who would like to follow and get involved in friendly, healthy discourse, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and Bluesky by searching the tag @kiacupunc and looking for the keyhole and Qi character logo that you see at the top of this page.
In many ways I wish it were unnecessary to post on social media at all, but in today’s climate unfortunately it is normal practice, and does help raise awareness of the clinic’s existence. As a small business, some advertising is necessary to supplement custom that arrives through word of mouth or internet searches. And social platforms can be thriving, happy places when curated carefully and led with passion, discernment, and a willingness to making genuine connections and create meaningful dialogue.
I also think it’s important to share good information about the benefits of acupuncture and health practices in general. As such, I will maintain my online spaces and endeavour to keep them informative, respectful, constructive, and useful. They are places where you can expect to be met with kindness and consideration. If you have sincere questions, you are welcome here. If you want to look at the evidence, it is available. If you want to hear about real world outcomes, those outcomes are what keep this clinic going.
The online community exists for people who want support and discussion, not for winning internet debates.
For information on how acupuncture works physiologically, check out this article. Or this one for a look at the tension between modern individualism and traditional wisdom. This blog dives into a discussion of Qi – what it is... and isn't. While this article explores how Chinese medicine diagnosis differs from Western medicine.
