In academia Arday had innumerable spineless, fawning conformists available to facilitate his preposterous scams during the good times, but I wonder if he had a single real friend to help him once they ended.
You, RR, are better situated than I to know whether this is so, but as the fictions collapsed, if one were to have proposed to someone in the sociology department at Arday’s college that it would no longer be tenable to support him as academic titan and ultra-marathoner, but they could still support and help him as a fellow human being – I imagine a reaction similar to that of Spinal Tap’s Nigel when Rob Reiner tried to explain that having the dials on the amp go up to 11 didn’t actually make it any louder: utter incomprehension.
I don't know - almost all the academics I've ever known have actually been pretty decent human beings - even if I disagreed with their politics or religion. I've known a handful of knob-heads, of course, but I don't think any more than one would generally expect (a certain fraction of any population are going to be knob-heads).
But then I worked in the UK pre-woke madness, and then moved abroad to a decidedly non-woke university, so I never really experienced the madness from within.
absolutely, this should have been seen as a real possibility , if not probability when his imaginary world completely collapsed. This should have been seen coming.
The stories he was telling about himself were so over the top I don't understand how he was not questioned about them at the time. There has got to be a whole lot more to all of this which we will likely never know as everyone moves into CYA mode.
I find parallels with the rape gangs - everybody is/was too fucking scared to say anything because 'muh racism!' compounding this man's rise....I mean, c'mon, he was obviously a bullshitting fantasist. And yes, everyone who pandered will be vilified and in some instances rightly so.
He, sadly, has burst the bubble of academic bullshittery - we've had years of woke nonsense, DEI/BLM/CRT/trannys/diversity shoved down our throats ad nauseum. White hatred has been allowed to fester for years now... the lightning rod effect and tragic outcome for him and his family is very sad, for sure.
Hopefully we can talk now, about this insidious ideological creep of stupid ideas and stupid people.
The people who condemned Arday to this are the Dons who enabled and manufactured this unfortunate fantasist. People like Hilary Cremin, who was so desperate for approval from her woke colleagues across wider academia that she waived away the necessary standards required for a professorship. I despise those empty headed morons, they merely patronise people for their own pride and vanity.
I don't know how those people can live with their consciences. Do they not have at least some small doubt that they were wrong? That they have bought into a bogus ideology that led to this tragic outcome?
I know there have been plenty of jokes, but all of the anger I've seen (and there's lots of it) has been directed at Cambridge University, not Arday himself. That they have allowed themselves to be corrupted by pseudo-science and a dubious ideology. As long as academia is run like this, there will be more Jason Arday's - there's almost certainly already more out there.
The plagiarism is a footnote. The real scandal is that it has exposed a corner of academia that is driven by political ideology and activism with no respect for science at all.
As I am in the US, I learned of the scandal through BBC and Substack (including yours). It is a tragedy all around, created by people who forced him up, and up, and up. We have a thing referred to as a post turtle. “When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself, he doesn’t belong there, he can’t get down by himself, and you wonder who the h*ll put him up there.”
Poor chap was obviously mentally ill, creating a totally fabricated history about himself, and the buffoons in academia, nodded along with it all. Instead of politely ignoring him, they lifted him up to such a dizzy height that his inevitable fall was always going to be catastrophic. They used him shamelessly. Just as shamelessly, they will move quickly on, averting their eyes from the human tragedy they alone created. Cambridge university: arrogant, entitled and indifferent to the truth.
Yeah - no doubt he felt some degree of humiliation and lots of pressure and maybe felt like he had been abandoned. But suicide isn't a good choice - I feel sorry for the family he's left behind.
His critics didn't put him in that exalted position. He wouldn't have faced such criticism otherwise - and the criticism was justified. I said in an earlier post, before this tragic end, that my position was Arday was more victim than perpetrator.
Has the smell of the grooming gang problem - everybody too fucking scared to say 'You're a moron, bro, you lied and have no bizzo here.' bc 'muh racism!'
It's suicide. The family's statement all but confirms it.
I think Arday was a fundamentally decent person but he didn't have the qualities required for the post he was given. That's not a moral attack but a fair observation. Very few people are at that level.
Arday would have done quite well as a motivational speaker for teenagers, or spoken word poet or black culture critic or something along those lines.
I could also see opportunities for him to parlay the scandal into another career, maybe as some sort of self-effacing comedian. That may sound glib but I think it would have been feasible and potentially very successful.
It's tragic. He never set out to fool anyone in my view. He was probably genuinely confused when it all started to unravel.
To maintain open debate, I think one should be ready to participate in civil, robust exhanges at times, but the cyber bullying and wave of attacks that have come from total strangers towards Arday over the past week are way beyond civil and open debate. Many online commentators, including some of the most well-known ones, should feel shame and should check their moral compass today.
I get what you're saying Mike, but I'm going to disagree. High-profile public figures have always been ridiculed, mocked, and shamed - where appropriate (and also often where inappropriate) - it's part of the 'price' one pays for the limelight. I agree that the internet may have exacerbated this somewhat.
There's probably a fine line between taking the piss and outright abuse - and there's probably a bit of a fuzzy area around that line - but maybe here I should mention JK Rowling who has been subjected to levels of abuse and scrutiny orders of magnitude more than Arday.
You could take almost any public figure and find some section of the population engaging in a 'pile-on' these days.
Maybe it's wrong, maybe it's too much to expect, but at the moment I'm definitely coming down on the side of "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". The academics who propelled Arday to such lofty heights knew he wasn't intellectually 'strong' enough to occupy that position. Did they also know he wasn't emotionally strong enough, either?
Good riddance to this flim flam man, racial grievance merchant, and thief.
His family, whoever they may be, knew every word out of his mouth was a lie but they didn’t breathe a word, did they? They were co-perpetrators in this asinine scam and i couldn’t feel less sorry for them.
I’ll reserve my sympathy for the students who paid tuition to listen to this empty suit spew his pseudo-academic racist drivel.
That's a bit harsh. Maybe his family did know that some of his stories were exaggerated - but they knew a different side to him and maybe accepted all of that as part of who he was. Two kids are now left without a father and that's not something I can celebrate at all.
It was definitely on the extreme side - but this is the internet after all and it does have a bit of a regrettable tendency to encourage people to get a bit carried away
He probably had a personality disorder but he wasn’t crazy or insane. He knew exactly what he was doing. And anytime anyone dared to even notice anything, he screamed racism and sicced his lawyers on them. Just another slimy grifter laughing in the face of civilisation.
In academia Arday had innumerable spineless, fawning conformists available to facilitate his preposterous scams during the good times, but I wonder if he had a single real friend to help him once they ended.
Yes that occurred to me too. Did they just wash their hands of him? I sincerely hope not.
You, RR, are better situated than I to know whether this is so, but as the fictions collapsed, if one were to have proposed to someone in the sociology department at Arday’s college that it would no longer be tenable to support him as academic titan and ultra-marathoner, but they could still support and help him as a fellow human being – I imagine a reaction similar to that of Spinal Tap’s Nigel when Rob Reiner tried to explain that having the dials on the amp go up to 11 didn’t actually make it any louder: utter incomprehension.
I don't know - almost all the academics I've ever known have actually been pretty decent human beings - even if I disagreed with their politics or religion. I've known a handful of knob-heads, of course, but I don't think any more than one would generally expect (a certain fraction of any population are going to be knob-heads).
But then I worked in the UK pre-woke madness, and then moved abroad to a decidedly non-woke university, so I never really experienced the madness from within.
I’m encouraged by your reply. Thanks. Arday’s psyche may just have been too fragile to withstand such a drastic fall
Are you a psychiatrist?
absolutely, this should have been seen as a real possibility , if not probability when his imaginary world completely collapsed. This should have been seen coming.
Probably - I wonder if his 'friends' and colleagues knew how vulnerable he was when they placed him in such a position?
The stories he was telling about himself were so over the top I don't understand how he was not questioned about them at the time. There has got to be a whole lot more to all of this which we will likely never know as everyone moves into CYA mode.
I find parallels with the rape gangs - everybody is/was too fucking scared to say anything because 'muh racism!' compounding this man's rise....I mean, c'mon, he was obviously a bullshitting fantasist. And yes, everyone who pandered will be vilified and in some instances rightly so.
He, sadly, has burst the bubble of academic bullshittery - we've had years of woke nonsense, DEI/BLM/CRT/trannys/diversity shoved down our throats ad nauseum. White hatred has been allowed to fester for years now... the lightning rod effect and tragic outcome for him and his family is very sad, for sure.
Hopefully we can talk now, about this insidious ideological creep of stupid ideas and stupid people.
I think it almost certain that the wrong lessons will be learnt.
Yes - it is another feature of 'woke' that entirely the wrong lessons are learned (or should that be 'leared'?)
What lessons MysteryBee.
The people who condemned Arday to this are the Dons who enabled and manufactured this unfortunate fantasist. People like Hilary Cremin, who was so desperate for approval from her woke colleagues across wider academia that she waived away the necessary standards required for a professorship. I despise those empty headed morons, they merely patronise people for their own pride and vanity.
I don't know how those people can live with their consciences. Do they not have at least some small doubt that they were wrong? That they have bought into a bogus ideology that led to this tragic outcome?
I know there have been plenty of jokes, but all of the anger I've seen (and there's lots of it) has been directed at Cambridge University, not Arday himself. That they have allowed themselves to be corrupted by pseudo-science and a dubious ideology. As long as academia is run like this, there will be more Jason Arday's - there's almost certainly already more out there.
The plagiarism is a footnote. The real scandal is that it has exposed a corner of academia that is driven by political ideology and activism with no respect for science at all.
Very sad.
DEI is dangerous.
DEI killed him.
Completely agree.
Never have grown accustomed, nor do I intend to become accustomed, to the entire social morality being named after God.
Condoleances to his family, for what it is worth.
Also, good of you to get a post out about his death.
Yeah - had a heavy heart last night when I heard the news. Really shocked and very sad.
What a tragic waste.
Still, I feel as though this was somehow inevitable.
I pray that those who need to learn from this do, and that this ending is never repeated.
As I am in the US, I learned of the scandal through BBC and Substack (including yours). It is a tragedy all around, created by people who forced him up, and up, and up. We have a thing referred to as a post turtle. “When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself, he doesn’t belong there, he can’t get down by himself, and you wonder who the h*ll put him up there.”
A post turtle - perfect description!
Poor chap was obviously mentally ill, creating a totally fabricated history about himself, and the buffoons in academia, nodded along with it all. Instead of politely ignoring him, they lifted him up to such a dizzy height that his inevitable fall was always going to be catastrophic. They used him shamelessly. Just as shamelessly, they will move quickly on, averting their eyes from the human tragedy they alone created. Cambridge university: arrogant, entitled and indifferent to the truth.
I wondered when the psuedo-psychologists would emerge. Didn't take long.
Nicely put. Thank you. A very sad affair indeed.
As I posted in a separate Note:
Bad things get forgotten, if not also forgiven. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Yeah - no doubt he felt some degree of humiliation and lots of pressure and maybe felt like he had been abandoned. But suicide isn't a good choice - I feel sorry for the family he's left behind.
I don’t see why it’s any more appropriate to blame his enablers for his death than it is to blame his critics.
His critics didn't put him in that exalted position. He wouldn't have faced such criticism otherwise - and the criticism was justified. I said in an earlier post, before this tragic end, that my position was Arday was more victim than perpetrator.
He fucking loved it, bro.
When does personal responsibility kick in?
Has the smell of the grooming gang problem - everybody too fucking scared to say 'You're a moron, bro, you lied and have no bizzo here.' bc 'muh racism!'
DEI = Didn't Earn It.
His enablers were benefiting from the fraud they perpetuated. His critics pointed at the fraud. There is a difference.
It's suicide. The family's statement all but confirms it.
I think Arday was a fundamentally decent person but he didn't have the qualities required for the post he was given. That's not a moral attack but a fair observation. Very few people are at that level.
Arday would have done quite well as a motivational speaker for teenagers, or spoken word poet or black culture critic or something along those lines.
I could also see opportunities for him to parlay the scandal into another career, maybe as some sort of self-effacing comedian. That may sound glib but I think it would have been feasible and potentially very successful.
It's tragic. He never set out to fool anyone in my view. He was probably genuinely confused when it all started to unravel.
Very well put
To maintain open debate, I think one should be ready to participate in civil, robust exhanges at times, but the cyber bullying and wave of attacks that have come from total strangers towards Arday over the past week are way beyond civil and open debate. Many online commentators, including some of the most well-known ones, should feel shame and should check their moral compass today.
But I doubt they will.
I get what you're saying Mike, but I'm going to disagree. High-profile public figures have always been ridiculed, mocked, and shamed - where appropriate (and also often where inappropriate) - it's part of the 'price' one pays for the limelight. I agree that the internet may have exacerbated this somewhat.
There's probably a fine line between taking the piss and outright abuse - and there's probably a bit of a fuzzy area around that line - but maybe here I should mention JK Rowling who has been subjected to levels of abuse and scrutiny orders of magnitude more than Arday.
You could take almost any public figure and find some section of the population engaging in a 'pile-on' these days.
Maybe it's wrong, maybe it's too much to expect, but at the moment I'm definitely coming down on the side of "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". The academics who propelled Arday to such lofty heights knew he wasn't intellectually 'strong' enough to occupy that position. Did they also know he wasn't emotionally strong enough, either?
Good riddance to this flim flam man, racial grievance merchant, and thief.
His family, whoever they may be, knew every word out of his mouth was a lie but they didn’t breathe a word, did they? They were co-perpetrators in this asinine scam and i couldn’t feel less sorry for them.
I’ll reserve my sympathy for the students who paid tuition to listen to this empty suit spew his pseudo-academic racist drivel.
That's a bit harsh. Maybe his family did know that some of his stories were exaggerated - but they knew a different side to him and maybe accepted all of that as part of who he was. Two kids are now left without a father and that's not something I can celebrate at all.
A bit harsh? Please, you can do better than that. It was a monstrous statement.
It was definitely on the extreme side - but this is the internet after all and it does have a bit of a regrettable tendency to encourage people to get a bit carried away
Do you see the people even here weaponsing his death for their own political, sometimes racial, agenda? It's happening.
Sure. But so what?
His life was 'weaponized' by people with an agenda. They'll weaponize his death too (to demonize the 'right' as they see it).
How do you propose to stop this (on either 'side')?
I didn’t get carried away. I meant, and stand by, every word.
Only online cowards get carried away.
My comment is composed of four sentences. Which are “monstrous” and why?
He was probably mentally unwell. It is just sad overall.
He probably had a personality disorder but he wasn’t crazy or insane. He knew exactly what he was doing. And anytime anyone dared to even notice anything, he screamed racism and sicced his lawyers on them. Just another slimy grifter laughing in the face of civilisation.
He still didn't deserve to die.
nobody said that, while he thought himself he deserved to die
He is but a reflection of what we have built, all of us.
Leave me out of your collective guilt.
I'm not guilty. Don't feel the guilt at all. Just noting that we need to do a little bit more than we have been doing.
Do what?
Write more stuff on Substack.
What are you a policeman?
Yes and you are under arrest for silliness.
Right..
Hmm, now who do you remind me of?
https://www.bcu.ac.uk/news-events/news/research-finds-mp-jo-coxs-murder-was-followed-by-50000-tweets-celebrating-her-death
Idk I’m not a mind reader.
You'd think he would've learned his lesson with the Milli Vanilli scam in the 90's.
so i am gonna "play" :)so which proof exists that this guy
a) existed at all and if he existed: (EDIT; so there is enough real video footage, he existed)
b) died by suicide ?
(outside the media ofc) let me know ur proof of his suicide/death. - guess what i dont believe the media, when mnost of these stories are fake n gay<