Which does not excuse, nor explain, how one could be so misguided as to talk about capitalism as if laissez faire exists anywhere in the world……which is exactly what happened in context.
Agreed. In my experience, the giveaway that someone is a Marxist (or Marxian, if you prefer) is that they refer to the status quo system (subsidies, bailouts, anti-competitive regs, licensing requirements, etc.) as laissez faire capitalism, sometimes using the terms “neo-liberalism” or “cultural capitalism”.