Not mean-spirited. Just honest. If this were a private conversation, I'd keep my thoughts to myself and leave in search of more rational company, but when someone starts publicly saying things like...

• "Eliezer [is] proclaiming that it's not canon for this community."
• "The comment is basically like, 'Scott Alexander good boy. We have paid him recently. Anissimov bad. Bad Anissimov no work for us no more.'"
• Accusing Eliezer of dismissing an idea out of hand due to fear of public unpopularity.

(all of which are grossly unfair readings of Eliezer's coment)

...then I think some bluntness is called for.