[notdanariely]

Judging by the responses in this thread, your comment was deemed off-topic. I think part of the reaction is that your tone sounded like you were pushing an agenda. Then when people said they thought it was off topic, you doubled down on the insist tone. Both of those things are a turn-off: people don't want to see reddit-like behavior (taking a topic about a historical discovery of slavery conditions in Russia and turning it into a US-centric political hot-button issue).

I thought your initial comment was a little off-topic, personally. But the defensive / insistent tone in this reply makes me think that you actually were pushing an agenda, and that the criticisms were valid. (Essentially, to me, you proved their point: you weren't interested in discussing the focus of the article, but wanted to hijack the thread to talk about an issue important to you.)