"Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead."
I would not say that it was provocative, news is about lecture from author, so I provided my opinion and additional context on author. Is it provocative to mention dislike for author based on what she says and back it with evidence? In context of novel writing I find it highly relevant to understand who is author, so I can choose if I want to learn more.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
That does double when the provocative thing isn't even in the article, but has been imported because of some generic association.