Here's a good quote from that discussion

@SEELE

I suspect that in reality there would be nuance based on context. Let's say someone posted info about a communist march, and someone else responded with a post that says "Anyone else going? KILL. THE. COMMIES." followed by the image of the guy with bulging arms driving a car at people marching. If I were a judge I would call that a threat, even though it's moderately indirect. The thing is, it's impossible to specify all these edge cases, which is why we have judges in the first place.

The admins are in the unenviable position of trying to interpret what qualifies as an edge case or not, and they are up against dedicated trolls and wreckers who are trying to deplatform the site, either for lulz or because it's their job. I suspect that this change is just the admins trying to gain some room to move as needed in the face of this. I will stand corrected if and when they ban someone who is obviously just making a stupid joke or is expressing a legitimate non-threatening opinion.