It also pattern-matches to a very clumsy smear, which I get the impression is triggering readers before they manage to appreciate how it relates to the thesis.
It doesn’t just pattern match to a clumsy smear. It’s also not the only clumsy smear in the article. You’re acting as though that’s the only questionable thing Metz wrote and that taken in isolation you could read it in some strained way to keep it from being a smear. It was not published in isolation.
It doesn’t just pattern match to a clumsy smear. It’s also not the only clumsy smear in the article. You’re acting as though that’s the only questionable thing Metz wrote and that taken in isolation you could read it in some strained way to keep it from being a smear. It was not published in isolation.