The author's sole contention is that government/banking interests will disrupt BTC thus: "gradually purchase large sums of Bitcoins, a  hundred million dollars worth given the current market cap would be plenty. Then flash sell them to flood the market and drive the price down. Rinse, repeat."

To me one obvious counterargument is that kind of manipulation only works when there are people eager to exchange between BTC and fiat. No fiat, no leverage.

In these early days, such manipulations appear not to deter "enough" people from choosing BTC. While it is likely that many people are in fact deterred by volatility and media FUD about volatility, BTC use continues to grow. You can fool some of the people all of the time - that doesn't matter.

Regardless, the value of one BTC will always be one BTC, no matter what governments and banks do. The choke point is fiat, so just say no to fiat.