I’m no fan of the WEI proposal, but the headline here is inaccurate. Rick expressed a belief that criminals were amongst those voicing concern over the proposal, not claiming that all opponents are criminals, as the headline suggests.
> my suspicion that there is significant intimidation from criminals who are afraid this feature will disrupt their illegal and/or unethical businesses, and I don't give in to criminals or bullies
Note also, avoiding any discussion of the web open or how it entered into the decision to postpone, supposedly. Though, that also wasn't said, just sort of implied with the half-hearted smiley-faced plea for compromising.
I am not emotionally invested because I see this as inevitable and don't care, I'll go live in the woods soon anyway, but this is just icky to read.
"Thank you for your comments. We are not going to listen to your comments. We're surprised that not listening to your comments has led to people trying to contact through other means. The only reason I can think of to object to WEI is crime so enough of you are probably criminals that I'm going to mention it in the first paragraph as an accusation."
Why not, say, the librarians?
So, he chose to speak about a specific thing, and so it's perfectly fair to critique exactly that specific thing, which he chose to highlight.