What made it sound that way to me was the suggestion that "programmers writing out the code, line by line" for various inappropriate behaviors (e.g., plotting rebellion) was worth talking about, as though by dismissing that idea one has effectively dismissed concern for the behaviors themselves.

I agree that being familiar with the larger corpus of work makes it clear the author can't possibly have meant what I read, but it seemed worth pointing out that the reading was sufficiently available that it tripped up even a basically sympathetic reader who has been following along from the beginning.