I've never heard the "hundred flowers bloom" phrase before. I've never heard of the history to which it applies. I don't know major political events of the 1950

I've never heard the "hundred flowers bloom" phrase before. I've never heard of the history to which it applies. I don't know major political events of the 1950s for most places in the world. The post WW2 era was a tumultuous time. Now you aren't wrong. But I also don't think it's fair to call dumb and insensitive. It's not dumb because it's a perfectly reasonable and useful analogy. And I don't think it's fair to call it insensitive because the author almost certainly didn't know the 60 year old foreign history from which it is derived. That's not someone being callous or insensitive. It's just good old fashioned ignorance. But ignorance that's kind of ok and fine. Like, it's just totally ok for someone not to know the origin of the phrase.