How does detaching my comment from the person I was replying to and removing all context of the conversation help?
There was nothing generic about my comment nor was it a tangent from the topic at hand. It was a direct reply to an individual in favor of "diversity as a goal" policies as a means for correcting biases.
It helps by allowing the generic flamewar topic to sink to the bottom of the thread, where it is less likely to burn everything else to a crisp.
The link back to the original parent is there to provide context for anyone who wants it.
It may be true that you didn't introduce the generic topic; flamewars arise by degrees, so the choice of where to snip them is often a little arbitrary. Usually we snip it where the discussion becomes unmoored from the topic, which might not be where the bait first appeared.
There was nothing generic about my comment nor was it a tangent from the topic at hand. It was a direct reply to an individual in favor of "diversity as a goal" policies as a means for correcting biases.