Damned Druids

[Confused Ape]

I've just read the article and noticed something about the headline.

Island County judge rejects plea bargain for ‘Druid’ child rapist

Note how it's written as 'Druid', not Druid. Single or double quotation marks used in this way have a particular meaning.

Quotation Marks (speech) marks to indicate alleged or so-called

Use Quotation Marks to Denote So-Called or Alleged
Quotation marks can be used to denote the idea of so-called, alleged, or supposed.

Examples:

Peter's "mates" left him on the path to die.
(so-called mates)
Using his father's equipment, Alexander found over 50,000 bacteria on a "clean" chopping
board.
(so-called clean)
The sheep were noticeably stressed. It must've been a very big "cat."
(In this example, the quotation marks play two roles. They show a quotation of somebody who claimed the culprit was a cat and also allude to the idea of a so-called cat.)

He claimed to be a Druid in order to deceive a child but the quotation marks suggest that readers aren't supposed to jump to conclusions about the followers of the modern Druid religion.

Ancient Order of Druids In America