Devil's antagonist? Did you mean Devil's advocate?

Not hardly. Look at his catalog. The article was a bad faith article.

My "interpretation-- the worst one possible" wasn't just to play Devil's advocate or think poorly of someone for shits and giggles.

I suspect you're reverse projecting because that's what you're doing. You just want to see nobility where there truly is none.

That's your prerogative. Me? I like to peruse through the catalog of a writer who writes something questionable so see if this is a recurrent theme or ideology or if they maybe just didn't edit well or didn't consider how it would land, or just forgot to try to take their bias blinders off.

If it's someone you haven't seen before, you dint know until you know. Not until you've established a pattern of behavior.

There's definitely an ideological pattern of behavior with this author.

I stand by my criticism and my dissent.