Yes, that phrase stuck out to me also. Apologists for language attrition will assert that converging language into a handful of very simple words is doubleplus

Yes, that phrase stuck out to me also. Apologists for language attrition will assert that converging language into a handful of very simple words is doubleplusgood, and we should embrace the dumbification because that's 'just how languages work'. But for a historical article, I did expect a slightly more nuanced take.