Here's the thing: it's fiction, and short of Ayn Rand's speechifying characters, fictional characters aren't necessarily mouthpieces for the author, let alone reliable narrators.
Are you irked by the fictional father's mis-read of history, or by the fictional lawyers who distorted the truth to put together a micro-lawsuit for reparations? Or is your assumption that Paul Ford doesn't know what he's talking about?
(FWIW, I'm inclined to believe that the Congo reference is an unintentional sleight and a throw-away example used to make a few points about the reach of these micro-lawsuits rather than a troll, but I don't find that it detracts from the illusion because it sounds pretty representative of the understanding of the issue some upper middle class dad might actually have.)
I don't really care whether Ayn Rand's an ignorant boob or his fictional character is. I'm an irritable man and I irk easily.
For example, I am irked every time I hear someone use the phrase '5 times more', because then I'm always left wondering if they whether they really mean '5 times as much', or '6 times as much'.
Comments
Here's the thing: it's fiction, and short of Ayn Rand's speechifying characters, fictional characters aren't necessarily mouthpieces for the author, let alone reliable narrators.
Are you irked by the fictional father's mis-read of history, or by the fictional lawyers who distorted the truth to put together a micro-lawsuit for reparations? Or is your assumption that Paul Ford doesn't know what he's talking about?
(FWIW, I'm inclined to believe that the Congo reference is an unintentional sleight and a throw-away example used to make a few points about the reach of these micro-lawsuits rather than a troll, but I don't find that it detracts from the illusion because it sounds pretty representative of the understanding of the issue some upper middle class dad might actually have.)
I don't really care whether Ayn Rand's an ignorant boob or his fictional character is. I'm an irritable man and I irk easily.
For example, I am irked every time I hear someone use the phrase '5 times more', because then I'm always left wondering if they whether they really mean '5 times as much', or '6 times as much'.