Really it's very kind of you to apologise; in fact making the effort to make amends without even being asked to, and to a total stranger is quite magnificent!

But in any case, no need to apologise as you were speaking from (as we all do) a limited level of information...

I've recently got active in Extinction Rebellion circles but the strong feeling I get is indeed that, I am an outsider despite all the words about being anti-racist, for diversity etc etc... However at Uni I did feel part of a community of people I understood as socialist/feminist/liberal/Irish but when push came to shove as I wrote my dissertation a strong critique of western philosophy, they tried to give me a fail, and no-one stepped up to rally round and stand up for what is really rhetoric about university as the locus of the search fro truth dialogue and debate... There's subtle forms of control which are actually quite fascistic , I mean, look at what they have done to Julian Assange.

The problem is I was never part of any social circle growing up, beyond the immediate family, so it's really hard to work out what is a social norm and what is an individual's own character/quirk.

We are all learning and that's one of the lovely things about this platform, to reach beyond our usual circles. Thank you for responding with such care. Blessings to you and yours.