He wasn't trolling; the memo was intended for other similar academics, and the targets were all chosen to be outside of their bubble: on the "them" side rather

He wasn't trolling; the memo was intended for other similar academics, and the targets were all chosen to be outside of their bubble: on the "them" side rather than "us". None of his colleagues were using PL/I, Fortran, or Cobol, so they could just have chuckle. They weren't running a business depending on a single vendor, with crushing complexity, so hahaha, those guys are idiots. Etc.