@tchambers @deadsuperhero @esoteric_programmer I have the same perception.
When I was abused on a French-speaking instance because some people were mad that I wanted to provide free science communication content on Mastodon (yes, you read it right), the abuse came from a very small number of accounts. Maybe even less than 10.
I don't know what the solution is. Maybe there is no solution, and/or maybe it's already too late.