You probably wouldn't have been flagged if you'd said something like, "I remain skeptical. Could you demonstrate your ability to tell what lizards are thinking?" In my experience comments are usually flagged for tone rather than content.

If my comment was overly provocative, I apologize. I was trying to get a laugh out of you. It's a passage from my favorite book. Based on past interactions, I thought that book fell into your area of interest, so I thought you may have read it and get a chuckle out of the reference. But perhaps that was overly familiar on my part.

From the site guidelines:

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

> Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

> Eschew flamebait.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals...

That's why that comment was flagged. (To me personally, your comment was harsh enough to be worthy of downvoting, though I'm not sure I would have flagged it.)

Also from the guidelines:

> Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

My response was completely fair and sincere and civil. You must have projected tone into it