>but if I wanted to choose a positive mention of a left-wing person, or a negative mention of a right-wing person, I could have chosen about forty different clauses.
That part is easy if you think the article is as you suggested: "the real purpose is the simple, everyday attack on those who have different political opinions to the author."
Besides, you left out the part of the excerpt you chose which alluded more to the actual central criticism the previous comment was pointing out:
"...tied in some vague way to academia, which they use to validate their anti-intellectualism while passing their feelings off as philosophy and, worse, as (mis)guides for the misguided."
That part is easy if you think the article is as you suggested: "the real purpose is the simple, everyday attack on those who have different political opinions to the author."
Besides, you left out the part of the excerpt you chose which alluded more to the actual central criticism the previous comment was pointing out:
"...tied in some vague way to academia, which they use to validate their anti-intellectualism while passing their feelings off as philosophy and, worse, as (mis)guides for the misguided."