It is tempting to believe that drugs are the reason of violence here in Mexico. The reality is way more complex, and these cartels and violent groups with many income sources, corruption is what allow them to flourish. So yeah, drugs are part of the problem but not the main reason.
Wow! Thanks for sharing it, I cannot believe things like this could happen.
I think that Mastodon is only having a rush of excitement because it feels compelling since it's "decentralized", and I believe that the people who is moving to Mastodon is tired of the abuse that happens on all Social Meida platforms, but if it grows enough, the same problems with Twitter will emerge or even new and very difficult ones.
I don't know if Mastodon is really a solution for content moderation because content is just a reflection of the human psychology, and people will always use this and other platforms to do their best and their worst, so, I hope that at some point the good things overcome the bad ones and things like what happened to you will be a matter of our current times and not a pattern of what the Internet allows.
Self-publishing is not always the best option.
Maybe you can start writing for a well established magazine/blog. This may help you to build your 'audience'.
If you want to go on your own, I think the best is first to define what are your goals, from that you can choose if your best option is a blog, a newsletter or a book.
Every platform has its advantages and big disadvantages but choosing one is a matter of your audience's preferred channel to stay in contact with your work.