It has more to do with that the opinion is so over the top and faulty. Read the commentary if you really aren't sure what's faulty with Reid Blackman's "opinion piece."

A lot of times, these types is articles or Op-Eds are advertisements or marketing for the author. They put up an unpopular opinion for feelings, and that incites emotions, and hence gets shared. And they might net some publicity or extra book sales from it.

Based on this author’s background, I would easily lean towards that conclusion .

You don’t think a newspaper can attempt to guide public opinion by limiting the scope of the discourse that occurs within their opinion section? I would argue that NYT has a clear ideological perspective which can be easily inferred from their editorial section. What’s wrong with disagreeing with this perspective and trying to point out its limitations?

I think it's up to an educated populace to be able to dismantle bad arguments, or ideas that clash with liberal freedoms, without ironically saying "this shouldn't have been published".