I think there's an important, unspoken point he was rebutting. When DHH uses the word fundamentalist, it conjures a vauge notion in our mind. "oh, I get it thos

I think there's an important, unspoken point he was rebutting. When DHH uses the word fundamentalist, it conjures a vauge notion in our mind. "oh, I get it those TDD people are just a cult. I'm sure they're just going to predictably respond to this with their closed minded mentality." I'll admit this is somewhat how I felt when reading DHH's article. This sort of intro breaks down that expectation in the reader. It's not just about meaning of the words, it affects the reader's biases. Basically, it's countering one rhetorical tactic with another.