Earlier this week, The New York Times opinion section really outdid itself in terms of the level of dog shit takes it deemed fit to print. In an op-ed titled “Contractors, Not Troops, Will Save Afghanistan,” Erik Prince argues that, instead of sending more U.S. military into the war-torn Middle Eastern country, we should allow private military contractors to take over operations there. Normally, an opinion like this would be seen as, at best, misguided. But coming from Prince—the founder of Blackwater (now Academi), an infamous private military contractor best known for committing atrocities during the Iraq War while getting paid tons of money by the U.S. government—it’s laughable. Essentially, the Times just printed a free, half-page ad for a mercenary group.
It should also be noted that this piece came hot on the heels of two other bizarre garbage takes titled, “When Transgender Trumps Treachery,” which is about the media coverage of Chelsea Manning, and “Three Cheers For Cultural Appropriation,” which is about… that. Needless to say, the Times is batting a thousand lately.
As expected, people online pounced on Prince’s op-ed within hours and started batting it around like a cat toying with an injured mouse. The general thinking is, if the Times is giving someone like Erik Prince a voice, why not some other villains?
Some people even managed to work other memes into their meme.
While others just did the best with what they had.
In the end, regardless of your political persuasion, we can all agree that the Times opinion section needs to start getting its shit together and should definitely publish more articles written by Bowser.