Sowell is always on point.
Sometimes a rubber chicken is just a rubber chicken.

As has been said, "If you can't express what you think, you don't know what you think."

I think Sowell is referring to the pseudo-intellectuals on the left. They use obfuscation to try to make others think they could not possibly understand the issues at hand. The simple answer is the facts. They want to obscure the facts to cover for their only knowing talking points, with no real knowledge of what they are pushing. If they can try to complicate the discussion, and others assume their knowledge, they win.

I stand alone. I have the mental capacity to understand complex statements. I have the ability to solve complex problems. In this snippet, I see the anti-intellectual tradition of the American Right, the conservatives who insist that high-falutin' college professors know less than a farm boy. This statement from Thomas Sowell is one reason among many why Ayn Rand distanced herself from the political conservatives of her time. She excoriated the "crackerbarrel conservatives" of the country store, the yokels of the styx, who were hostile to city people and their smart-aleck ways.

Once, double-entry bookkeeping was new.
Once, negative numbers were denied.
Later, "imaginary numbers" were unreal ... and then alternating current electricity was invented. But Thomas Edison could not work with it. He lacked the mathematics of calculus, so he kept to DC, and propagandized against George Westinghouse.

"Complex numbers? Who needs those? God gave us ten fingers. Have you ever see the square root of minus one? No, it is just a high-falutin' East Coast liberal college professor's complication of something that ain't even real -- which they admit: real numbers and imaginary numbers. You mean imaginary like umpteen or eleventy-nine? Shucks, there ain't no such animule!"

I assure, you my conservative comrades, complicated does not mean "unknowable" ... unless you have a two-digit IQ.

Now fully retired from the Alabama Department of Corrections, I was just a couple of years into that career when I picked up on the three favorite words of an administrative level memo writer
They are in basic form (no "ed" or "ing") ----
1. utilize
2. implement
3. facilitate
A simple word like "do" was anathema. Oops, strike that last word. It was a big no-no.

Why do those who wish to control people love complications? Because then they have an excuse for control and a bewildering array of legal rules to hide what they are actually doing.

That's why big government is a danger to freedom: it is always harder to hide when the walls are smaller and fewer.

To pride oneself on "complexity" is rather like embracing a scapegoat for being unable to articulate ideas to others. One can always fall back on the vanity of, "I`m just misunderstood because these simpletons cannot grasp my ideas." It would actually be more effective, for the sake of succeeding in future communication, to acknowledge that a more competent means of articulation is required.

I find it ironic that those who have the greatest pride in their own integrity, often come across as the most humble people--because their egos are not hinged on trivialities or substanceless ideals. They are devoted to truth and greatness and the need to countenance these virtues completely negates any "need to be right" for the express purpose of maintaining a self-image reflected in the regard of others. Such a person will never be ashamed to admit he/she is mistaken. Such a person would be more interested in progressing with newly acquired facts than dwelling on past mistakes.

No good reason to complicate anything that is already simple to understand, use, perform, etc.
Only reason to complicate the simple is to confuse, control, and corrupt in order to gain power, control, money. Income Tax Law is prime example of simple made complicated by design.
I'm also OK with rolling down my truck windows and locking the doors without a button, motors, and computer doing it for me. Bell and whistle automation like this just costs more money and then even more money when it breaks.

K.I.S.S. "Keep it simple, stupid". Always makes things easier to understand, for everyone.

Complication is often an excuse for obfuscation.

Unfortunately getting some to see the simple truth becomes really complicated.

I've always felt that way. "Simplism": is a slam against the truth. "Complicate me no complexity, and nuance me no nuance," I always say.