PG's writing is often so reductionist it muddies his points and HN commenters are often pedants about meaningless issues. Both can be true.

I don't blame PG for the pedantry over the minutiae. That's on the readers, and people on HN specifically are prone to this kind of pedantry. I do blame him for weakening his points by using bad language to express them.

TFA isn't about how to read, though. It's about writing.