I don’t just mean outrage or regular rage, I mean shock that someone was to the left of “legal weed and free college but only for those that operate a successful business for 3 years in a disadvantaged community” 
takes.
I think federating took them by surprise, looking back. For about a week, those smug liberals were at a loss to even fathom what Hexbears were saying, and could only chant bullshit about how we’re Russian/Chinese bots.
Sure they still do that but they’ve slightly adapted to Hexbear presence.
Democratic socialism does come with bloodshed, but it’s the blood of democratic socialists getting murdered by US-trained fascist juntas. You can look at any example of actual democratic socialism that isn’t just social democratic libs in the imperial core, the only case where the inevitable reactionary coup got prevented with the measures of a civil society and the rule of law is Bolivia. That’s one example out of dozens of honest, peaceful attempts of global south countries to elect their way out of capitalism and neo-colonial structures. That track record seems way too dangerous to me, i’d take a violent suppression of the comprador bourgeoisie over that any time because i value my own life and that of my comrades over that of capitalist leeches and their nazi lackeys. Better to live in the next Cuba than the next Chile or Indonesia.
And Bolivia wasn’t even bloodless. The reactionary coup regime was brutal towards protests and carried out several massacres. The only thing that made the putschist allow free elections in the end was the very real threat of militant labour activists blockading the capital.
If the Bolivian movement had listened to the liberals and limited themselves to debating the fascists in the marketplace of ideas, Jeannine Añez would still be dictator and not a convict.