"Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."
and this one:
"Eschew flamebait. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."
and this one:
"Don't be snarky."
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
If there's a substantive comment to be made about that historical parallel, it would look very different from what you posted. The more flame-prone a topic is, the more flame retardant you need to avoid the obvious, predictable trollish effects.
Given that you seem to have the authoritative editorial position on these comments, can you give us an example of what you might consider substantive in this particular case? So that we, in the peanut gallery, could have something to go on when crafting our responses? We're not mind readers.
