People misinterpret each other on the internet often. It's practically the default case. When this happens, it's important not to escalate, because that leads to more escalation, the needle goes into the red, and communication ceases.
A phrase like "lying about what I said" is an escalation. To escalate less, you could speak in terms of misunderstanding and clarification. Similarly, to escalate more, you could say something like "you're a liar". After all, they said something false, which by definition is a lie, and someone who lies is a liar, so you'd simply be stating a fact, yes? And a liar is a bad thing to be, right? So you could add "you're a bad person" too. This is how we get stuck in opposition and flamewars.
On HN, each of us is responsible for not letting that happen, regardless of how mistaken the other person is or how badly they violated the rules themselves. Acting from the feeling of "they started it" or "they did worse" won't work. Everybody always feels like the other person started it and did worse.
A phrase like "lying about what I said" is an escalation. To escalate less, you could speak in terms of misunderstanding and clarification. Similarly, to escalate more, you could say something like "you're a liar". After all, they said something false, which by definition is a lie, and someone who lies is a liar, so you'd simply be stating a fact, yes? And a liar is a bad thing to be, right? So you could add "you're a bad person" too. This is how we get stuck in opposition and flamewars.
On HN, each of us is responsible for not letting that happen, regardless of how mistaken the other person is or how badly they violated the rules themselves. Acting from the feeling of "they started it" or "they did worse" won't work. Everybody always feels like the other person started it and did worse.