There's no 'adblock wall' if you have a script blocker such as NoScript, even with scripts from 'theatlantic.com' allowed.

It is a bit tedious to manually allow js on websites to get them to work properly but...gee, just refer to the article's topic. Scripts from 'facebook.net' are somewhat ironically, but predictably, loaded with the page.

I worked around it by hitting the reader mode button as soon as the page loaded.

Thanks, I appreciate it!