In most programming languages the [] operator allows one to access elements in a container.
In this case, we are accessing the position "two colons minus one". I refuse to believe this makes any sort of sense for someone that has no deep knowledge of Python.
Lots of languages use [] with colon separators for array slicing, e.g. F#, Perl, Ruby. The idea that this syntax involves "deep knowledge" is laughable.
Your criticism is analogous to me looking at "int* foo = bar()" and saying, hey, we're multiplying a type by a name! How ridiculous!
The int pointer syntax is in fact ridiculous, so it does not support your point. Also s[x:y] is intuitively understandable compared to referencing two colons and minus one...
Well, that is ridiculous. It makes the language literally impossible to parts without context-sensive semantic analysis. Go Language fixes that bug by always having a type name first or a colon after introducing a variable.
Your username is a little too on the nose here. Plus you seem to have somehow entirely missed my point, to a degree I wonder if it is deliberate. Is this some sort of troll?
