Much of our civic discourse has moved online, and, while the digitization of speech has meant its democratization, it has also unleashed a monster. Megaphones have been placed in the hands of trolls, bigots and at the fringes of public discourse, weaponizing their hate and disrupting our democracy with surprising efficacy.

I worked on both the Obama and Clinton campaigns and, after 2016, was struck by the thirst for civic engagement. Here was a citizenry, with their hands raised, looking for a starting place for action and unsure of how to begin — that’s what 2016 inspired. Seeing this problem, I gathered a community to build a physical civic events space called Manny’s at the corner of 16th and Valencia streets in San Francisco.

We opened our doors to more than 500 people who came to await the midterm election results on election night. All the slices of life from our incredible city came to watch in community, hoping for good news, and to celebrate together when it came. It was electrifying.

Since then, the response to Manny’s has been overwhelming, with civic programming almost every night, and the space booked solid. We’ve had talks on topics ranging from Black Lives Matter to environmental justice to criminal justice reform.

The kitchen is staffed with formerly homeless individuals and run by the nonprofit Farming Hope. We’ve already given free or low-cost space to more than 25 nonprofits such as Mission Graduates, Indivisible, Citizen’s Climate Lobby and the Instituto Familiar de la Raza, who need to spend their money on programs, not expensive rental fees. Our coffee is $1.75 and you can have a healthy square meal for $6.

We’ve had elected officials and advocates in the space, artists and poets and change-makers coming in to teach and to learn. The space is fulfilling a real need.

Amid this remarkable coming-together of people from all walks of life, there also have been fringe activists who’ve gained an outsized voice demonizing Manny’s online. The far-right has attacked the business and me when they’ve disapproved of a guest speaker. The alt-left has pushed vitriolic lies and hatred on social media. Claims such as the space is a Zionist takeover of the Mission has emboldened people to walk in off the street and demand to know if the owner is Jewish.

The building has been vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti, is the target of weekly protests, and the business has been ideologically extorted: tell us if you’re a Zionist so we can try to drive you out of business. Given the mission of Manny’s, we have invited these individuals into the space for dialogue, but their goal is to shut down discourse, not engage in it.

I’m a religious Jew and proud of it. My father escaped persecution in Afghanistan and journeyed, partly on foot, to Israel to reunite with family who had previously escaped oppression and found safety there. My little sister was almost blown up by a suicide bomber at a bus stop in Jerusalem. As a liberal American Jew, I have complicated feelings about Israel. I do not support everything that its government does (nor everything our American government does). Israel and the United States have provided my family with safety when other countries haven’t, but that doesn’t mean I support the ending of innocent life. My hope for the Israeli and Palestinian people is to soon live in peace with mutual recognition in sovereign and safe borders. This complex issue is a perfect example of the need for high-quality discourse.

What bonds ideological absolutists on the left and the right is precisely what inspired the building of this new space — the opportunity to reverse corrosive incivility and to have vibrant discussion about complicated subjects. The ugliness of online discourse has made people hungry for the constructive in-person dialogue we are fostering at Manny’s.

How can you fight back against what’s happening to our civic life? Show up. Go to real, live civic programming. Discuss the news with your friends, don’t just post about it. Ask questions. Go to the Commonwealth Club or to 518 Valencia. Help me fight vitriol with virtue and hatred with hand raising.

Let’s show how San Francisco values of openness and acceptance trump intolerance and animus. Let’s bring high-quality discourse back and continue to be a beacon for the country as we have so many times before.

Manny Yekutiel is the founder of Manny’s, a civic engagement space in the Mission District of San Francisco.