I am a Chinese American. I can’t speak for the pope (in fact I’m atheist so I could not care less about the pope). But I can tell you that many recent immigrants who speak English as a second language are very bad at nuances in English. If someone hears the word “fag” in the context of talking about gay men, they’re not all going to pick up that it’s a slur, depending on where and how they’ve heard the term. Many of them will associate fag=gay as a matter of vocabulary. And my experience is that first gen immigrants tend to ignore or avoid pop culture so their overall exposure to language trends and usage are usually poor.
It’s a good article. It explains rural America. It doesn’t explain the well off assholes living in Huntington Beach CA. It doesn’t explain the well off assholes living in suburban Inland SoCal. It doesn’t explain rich privileged shitheads like Musk and Thiel.