Columnists aren’t Leninists

Right-wing columnists are abundant in college newspapers (I can attest to the situation at Ohio State, where I graduated), but most of their time is spent complaining about the “lack of freedom” in college. The truth is that media outside of colleges are owned and operated by the corporate elite (i.e., Fox and CNN), and the majority of opinions supported by these outlets are those that uphold U.S. political and economic hegemony in the third world. Moreover, college campus newspapers are hardly “leftist,” and Chase Cooper’s wild assertion this week about columnists being Leninists is meaningless sophistry. I have yet to read any columnist in the IDS who has demonstrated any knowledge of Lenin’s analysis of imperialism – where monopoly and finance capital come to dictate domestic and foreign policy of wealthy nations. I’m willing to bet that Cooper couldn’t explain Lenin’s theory, or how it might be relevant today, despite the eagerness to throw his name around willy-nilly.\nFinally, I would like to point out that all opinions are not equal. Conservatives and even many “liberals” argue in the vaguest of terms that we’re simply fighting “evil,” all without entertaining any class analysis between first and third world nations, discussing the harmful ramifications of U.S. military interventions or most importantly, explaining what financial motivations might be behind U.S. and imperialist military interventions. I request that the IDS quit publishing petty sophistry from right-wing columnists. Just as the astronomy department doesn’t devote an equal amount of its budget to the study of astrology and palm reading, a college newspaper shouldn’t devote a significant amount of its budget to publishing opinions that aren’t based on even a minimal amount of factual information. Cut the BS; this is a college periodical, not a playground where anybody can drop by and blow smoke out of their ass.\nNick Altieri\nGraduate student