[SideburnsOfDoom]

> What do you expect me to "learn" in this context?

I have now downgraded my expectations, learning is indeed optional.

> But the whole point of language is to communicate with others and this sentence is clearly confusing to many people.

Or - hear me out - maybe you're not in the target audience of this piece in "The Critic: Britain's Most Civilised Magazine". Not everything is written for everyone, and it's useless to complain about that. But you should at least be able to identify that it is a particular literate British tone, and know if that's your thing or not. If it is, then dig into the idioms. If it isn't then don't read it.

[marky1991]

"I have now downgraded my expectations, learning is indeed optional."

So I ask you a question and you then don't answer it but instead just reply with sarcasm?

I don't think this is a polite way to have a conversation, so I'm out.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> I don't think this is a polite way to have a conversation, so I'm out.

Indeed, everything that I feel needs saying is already in this thread somewhere, including the 2nd para of that comment. Sometimes it's said more than once.

There's no more. You taking meaning from it is in now up to you; as I am not paid to teach, there are strict limits to the effort that I will put into it, especially when unwillingness is demonstrated and lived experience dismissed.