Totally in agreement. The fundamental lesson of infoviz, in my view, is that visualization is an act of creative distortion: graphs are literally distortion (much like how diaries, photographs, and films are distortions of experience).

There’s no such thing as a neutral graph. Making certain things easier to compare might not be the goal. This is why journalistic graph makers must be extra purposeful, and grounded in theory.

I don’t believe that laypeople are using geographic distortions poorly with malicious intent, but more likely with ignorance, as the article suggests.