Twitter, nor apparently SciAm, is suited to dealing with nuanced, multifaceted issues. Because invariably, people in the business of replying to short snippets

Twitter, nor apparently SciAm, is suited to dealing with nuanced, multifaceted issues. Because invariably, people in the business of replying to short snippets with short snippets, will summarize someone's lengthy work in a short snippet. And on the basis of reading that summarization alone, someone will have an opinion (and possibly even a reasonable opinion, with no other context available), and then you're into the problem of (1) convincing someone to change their public opinion & (2) arguing from different viewpoints (if one has read the entire work & the other has not but won't admit to not having done so).