During a lecture on environmentalism at Brown, Tom Friedman got pied in the face by some rabble-rousing students. Good on Brown—while I’m not personally a huge fan of politics-as-spectacle, at least these students aren’t attending a study group or some other bullshit. It’s nice to see students being students in even the slightest way, and even more so to see intellectual idiocy met with the respect it deserves.

What really shocks me about the incident, though, is the response by commenters on IvyGate. A sample:

y09 says:
that’s a great way to encourage free speech! we can all learn something from this courageous brown student–how to silence displeasing views with immature stunts.

h09 says:
Retarded.

Prince’08 says:
Seriously? Friedman may tend to flaunt unseemly personal extravagence, but he also happens to be the leading chronicler of some of the most important phenomena of our time, perhaps of world history.
How is everyone so lefty-loosy that they are defending the cowardly pie-throwing act. The writer of this article must come from Columbia.

y10 says:
ps: probable antisemitism

@jacob savage says:
It reeks of intimidation and an attempt to humiliate a decent (if not boring) writer. Plus, the context makes it seem like anti-semitic proto-Marxism.

In a word: guhhhhhhhhh. If there’s any better representation of the sanctimonious pussy-footing of the modern Ivy Leage student than these moronic comments, I’d probably rather not see it. One might think these protestors set off a pipe bomb or kidnapped Friedman and drove toothpicks under his fingernails or something. But they pied him. As in, the form of political protest most commonly employed by the Three Stooges. It’s a pretty innocent act. But God forbid that Ivy League students embarrass Friedman, patron saint of triangulators, banal writers, and sensible liberals everywhere.

Also, LOL @ “he also happens to be the leading chronicler of some of the most important phenomena of our time, perhaps of world history.”