It seems to have become a game among “progressive” academics to see who can outdo everyone else in misrepresenting the ideas of liberal (in the word’s true meaning) thinkers.
On his Cafe Hayek blog, Don Boudreaux highlights another instance.
University of Southern California professor Jacob Soll has written an amazingly inaccurate portrayal of Adam Smith, managing to attribute to him ideas that Smith actually is at pains to refute. Soll also declares Smith to have been an advocate of slavery, which he most certainly was not.
It’s much easier to tear down people you disagree with (or want to be seen as disagreeing with) if you attribute to them pernicious ideas that they did not hold.