Mindless Yahooism

[updated below] [and again]

The New York Sun has a story quoting numerous New York state and city legislators who are threatening to retaliate against Columbia University if it allows Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to participate in its World Leaders Forum this afternoon. Here's a sampling:

Bollinger made a big mistake, and there should be consequences for him for making that decision," the chairman of the New York City Council's Finance Committee, David Weprin, said in an interview. "We should look at everything involving Columbia, whether it be capital projects, city and state, or other related things that we do in the city for them," he said.

Mr. Weprin was one of several elected officials who joined Jewish leaders, Columbia students, and alumni yesterday at a demonstration at the Morningside Heights campus to protest Mr. Ahmadinejad's talk.

"It's not going to go away just because this episode ends. Columbia University has to know … that they will be penalized," an assemblyman of Brooklyn, Dov Hikind, who also attended the rally, said. The lawmaker said Mr. Ahmadinejad should be arrested when he sets foot on campus.

[. . .]

Albany awards Columbia millions of dollars a year in student financial aid and also provides funding for smaller-scale capital projects. Last year, Albany awarded the school $10 million for nanotechnology center and $12 million for a cancer center in Washington Heights.

Columbia uses the state Dormitory Authority to borrow money at low interest rates. Mr. Silver could use his influence over the authority to weed out Columbia bonding projects before they are submitted for approval.

The school is also seeking approval from city lawmakers for its plan to expand into a 17-acre swath of land in West Harlem.

Now I have no idea whether these politicians have the votes to carry through with their threats, but am I the only one who finds this kind of threat totally unacceptable and completely contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the First Amendment? These legislators are threatening to use their official powers to punish a private university for engaging in an academic activity of which they do not approve. That would set a terrible precedent. Indeed, the threat alone sets a terrible precedent. It's hard to think of something more un-American than cracking down on a university for allowing an objectionable speaker to participate in an open forum.

People really need to settle down and get a grip. This is nothing more than mindless yahooism at this point. We should be embarrassed.

UPDATE: A common talking point among the angry yahoo crowd is that by allowing Ahmadinejad to attend this forum, Columbia is somehow lending him and his views "legitimacy" that they would not otherwise have. For example, here's the King of the Yahoos, Hugh Hewitt:

For as long as we recall that Iran has been killing American soldiers and Marines, we will also recall that when Ahmadinejad came to the United States, it was Columbia that welcomed him and gave him a stage, a microphone, a vast audience and all the “prestige” and “legitimacy” Columbia can confer.

This argument might make sense if Columbia was inviting some obscure nutjob off the street to participate in this forum, someone who had no other platform for airing his views. But Ahmadinejad is the president of an important country. That title, in and of itself, gives all the "legitimacy" he needs. When he talks, people listen. When he wants to give an interview, all the major news channels jump at the opportunity (he was on 60 Minutes just last night). When you reach that point, you don't need anyone's help getting your message out. You don't need a university to give you a stage and microphone.

While I understand the reasoning behind ignoring objectionable people who are incapable of commanding an audience on their own (in that case, providing a stage and microphone really would lend unwarranted legitimacy to the person), that's just not an option in Ahmadinejad's case. He's already a high-profile head of state. With someone like that, we've moved well past the "legitimacy" stage. It's far better to confront such a person and his views openly, rather than just ignore him.

UPDATE II: Euguene Volokh gets it exactly right:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a bad and dangerous man, but it seems that Columbia was quite right to have him speak there as part of its World Leaders Forum. Columbia students can benefit from hearing bad world leaders as well as good ones; I'm pretty confident that most of the students in the audience will be able to tell one from the other — and if they're not, then the event offers a great opportunity for them to do so.

If the event were some special honor for the person — as endowed lectures, "visiting public interest mentor" positions, graduation speeches, and the like often are — I would take a different view: A university should not honor the dishonorable. But my sense is that the World Leaders Forum does not carry the university's endorsement of the speaker's moral character, only of his significance on the world stage (which Ahmadinejad regrettably has plenty of).

And lest there be any confusion over whether Bollinger's invitation constituted an endorsement of Ahmadinejad's views, here's video of Bollinger's blistering introduction to Ahmadinejad's speech. For the better part of the past week, right wing bloggers and commentators have been accusing Bollinger of being some sort of anti-American leftist who sympathizes with Ahmadinejad and wants to embarrass President Bush by giving this man a platform to attack him. I wonder if any of them will take those accusations back now. Probably not. Yahoos don't care about facts.