I share your feeling that the author is throwing a lot of BS onto the wall, knowing that some of it will stick. I believe this is a well-executed tactic because

I share your feeling that the author is throwing a lot of BS onto the wall, knowing that some of it will stick. I believe this is a well-executed tactic because I don't think this article is written for software developers, it's written for slacktivists and the public at large. There are just too many parts where he tries to hide behind generalized statements designed to garner superficial agreement. The fact that this got a lot of exposure should serve as a warning sign though. The FSF is vulnerable and struggling to maintain relevance. Both the re-hiring and the controversy around RMS illustrate that in my opinion: whenever the discourse gets diverted away from Free software, it's a distraction they can ill afford. Either they didn't know that this would happen or they wanted it to happen. In any case, they're now even more vulnerable to these kinds of hit pieces, and I'm afraid the RMS issue could generate enough public interest for larger publications to execute successful strikes against the idea of Free software itself.