It's fine to refute a claim with opposing facts or opinions. We agree it was a bad comment, and we would have had no problem with a response that kept within the guidelines.

But the guidelines are very clear about making swipes and posting in an inflammatory style. These are the guidelines are relevant here:

Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Literally none of those are relevant to what I posted. I didn't swipe or sneer at anyone. I said:

- he never called for the death of anyone

- claiming otherwise (despite apparently being familiar with his work) is a deliberate lie

- falsely claiming that someone is a mortal threat is "grist for the mill" for people with violent tendencies

None of the three components of what I said come anywhere close to violating the guidelines.

Perhaps you're not familiar with the idiom? "Grist for the mill" just means that something is useful for a particular motive, it doesn't suggest being in cahoots or any intent whatsoever. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grist%20for%20one...