I did not. I provided some perspective. The idea that the Soviet gulags were evil, without the larger context of evil perpetrated by various nation-states (part

I did not. I provided some perspective. The idea that the Soviet gulags were evil, without the larger context of evil perpetrated by various nation-states (particularly nuclear superpowers) distracts from the truth. The fact that people react negatively to this factual consideration of evil in the context of nation-state politics is not my fault. I did not "take them on a flamewar tangent". And shying away from talking about truths like this only benefits the ignorant, at the expense of the rest of society. A community that rejects critical thinking, or even engaging at all about complex and difficult subjects, is not a community worth protecting. I think these little "talks" are just training your community to reject difficult conversations rather than learning how to have them.