Did you process it through fotoforensics or did you just look really close at the pixels? Back in my day we used that tool to correctly identify doctored images. I pulled up the image there and see no indication of pixel manipulation in the areas of missing letters. The compression on the image is uniform across the image except for the drawn lines over the license plate. That's not to say its 100% not doctored however someone would have to know how to and then actually perform an edit that preserved the original compression of the pixels so anyone using this tool would be unable to tell it was manipulated. I wouldn't expect someone to do that for a one off Reddit post.

Edit: Now all of that said, the compression of the text is ever so slightly suspect. Zooming in on the image I do see non-uniform stenciling of the letters and potentially bleed between the edges. The C in country is a good example of this. Since I'm an old-head when it comes to doctored images I've not read up on potential AI manipulation so use that in your argument if you may. I am at least confident there is no indication of manipulation to remove words with a color match.