By using a concrete example of a specific point in time, they are conflating that example with their own.
If he had just said something like “Can’t we all get along” without invoking the history, it would not have brought along the comparison.
To put this into the context of software, and assuming he did not intend the conflating, it would be like he invoked a function that updated state on a specific field that he wanted to change, but the function updated other fields as a side effect.
The most charitable interpretation is that it was an accident and he just reached for the first similar example he could think of, the least charitable is that he actually does think it’s the same.
My opinion is that the situations are so wildly different that it was an inappropriate example to invoke
I think the words popped into his head as a fact of life, and he correctly attributed it to the author.
I don't think any completion occurred because I wasn't confused about the two of them being the same. I don't think you were confused that they were the same either.
I don't think there are people out there that would read the paragraph and walk away thinking the author is just like Rodney King. Therefore I think taking offense for possible conflation on behalf of others is overly cynical.
If he had just said something like “Can’t we all get along” without invoking the history, it would not have brought along the comparison.
To put this into the context of software, and assuming he did not intend the conflating, it would be like he invoked a function that updated state on a specific field that he wanted to change, but the function updated other fields as a side effect.
The most charitable interpretation is that it was an accident and he just reached for the first similar example he could think of, the least charitable is that he actually does think it’s the same.
My opinion is that the situations are so wildly different that it was an inappropriate example to invoke