It’s not debatable at all. It’s simply malicious to put something someone never said in a block quote to make them look bad, especially when the block quote font size is like twice that of everything else. They also cowardly added a “(paraphrasing)” outside to cover their ass. (Edit: in case it’s not clear, I’m not saying they added that after the post was published.)
They achieved their goal: look at how many comments assume that malicious “paraphrasing”. They also made sure those of us who aren’t so quick to jump to conclusions after hearing a one-sided story will never interact with them ever.
Conveniently misremembering a quote and making that gross misrepresentation a callout is indistinguishable from malice. I cover my ass by avoiding people who commit deniable acts indistinguishable from malice.
They achieved their goal: look at how many comments assume that malicious “paraphrasing”. They also made sure those of us who aren’t so quick to jump to conclusions after hearing a one-sided story will never interact with them ever.