Most Pit threads are people posting because they are angry at someone. Said anger may result in saying hateful things, but they aren’t saying them specifically to piss the other person off. In general, what they want is for the other person to stop doing whatever it is that pissed them off. This is a difference in kind, not degree.
That said, there are some people who do post things to piss someone off. However, as I said in my post, some low level of trolling is allowed in the Pit. However, as the rules say, the mods reserve the right to decide that something has gone too far—that it is so beyond the pale that no reasonable person would say and not know that their posting privileges would be in jeopardy.
And there is no “disfavored group” involved here. I don’t even know what groups @split_p_j belongs to, other than that he appears to be a rape apologist.
And, as I said, there is precedent that rape apologia is moderatable. In the case I mentioned, it completely bypassed the “Warnings-Suspension-Banning” norm, because it was just that bad. And that wasn’t even directed at a poster.
I’m not sure I can overstate how bad what split_p_j said was. It’s definitely on par with other things we consider hate speech as well as that which clears the high bar to be considered moderatable trolling in the Pit. And the rules establish that the mods reserve the right to decide that both of these warrant moderator action, up to and including banning.