I read the entire article. I didn't see a single quotation of any of the people with whom he spoke saying anything about white supremacy or about oppressing people of other colors or ethnicities, yet at the end he came out with:
Here before me in earnest conversation for the last two hours was the personification of gun culture: The attitude of white supremacy, the Obama hatred and all the attendant side issues. I felt strangely privileged to have seen this man in the flesh, as if I were a cub reporter who had scooped the old timers.
But I was also aghast. This guy doesn’t even have centuries of oppression to blame for his radical, oppressive views. What the hell went wrong?
Clear case of either cognitive dissonance, or transference. Probably both.
And then my editor brain tripped on this:
When we went back to the table to set a price for the guns, my host began chatting again. I decided to turn the conversation to something a bit more fraught. What was he going to do, shoot me?
Color me naive, but I always thought people who get paid to write things should know how to use the words they write. WTF does "a bit more fraught" mean? "Fraught" is an adjective -- adjectives exist to accompany nouns.
Full Definition of FRAUGHT
1
archaic
a : laden
b : well supplied or provided
2
: full of or accompanied by something specified —used with with <a situation fraught with danger>
3
: causing or characterized by emotional distress or tension : uneasy <a fraught relationship>
He should stick to restaurant reviews.
