Have we lost our ability to educate, discuss, and debate?

I recently posted a question on one of my social media pages asking a question that I thought was simple enough but was about a contraversial subject. I opened the post by asking for discussion, tried to keep any hint of what my personal views on the subject were out of it, and finished with a question.

My purpose for posting the question was basically asking are we being contraversial for the right reasons, and is it ever right to take a pause and check ourselves/purpose/responsibilities, especially if those actions could further impact a vulnerable group of people. Is it ever OK to pause and look at changing tactics.

I received so much hate for this post and I ended up feeling bad that I'd unintentionally caused hurt. But then I've had to time to think about it and realised that they kind of proved my point. They came at me with an assumption about what my meaning was, they hurled insults, and they shot down any attempt at conversation; they could have come at it from a place of education (my wording of my post could have been much better and I have taken that on board), respectfully challenged views, and answered the actual question which was "is now the right time for [something to happen]?", but instead they chose aggression.

As I mentioned above, I feel that unintentionally they proved my point: I was contraversial by asking the question, they just shot it down with anger and hate, my meaning was lost and their meaning was lost. Like two sides of an argument shouting loudly in a room, all you hear is noise from both sides without ever learning or growing.

So now I'm thinking, have we lost our ability in this world to actually discuss, debate, and educate respectfully and with purpose, or is everyone so consumed by hatred that we've all become blindsided.