Jason Arday #3

[moldwarp]

A transgender gynaecologist

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An appointment with a transwoman gynaecologist sounds like my idea of hell on earth to be perfectly honest. Specially if Nathan Cofnas was the receptionist and Jason Arday was responsible for running my test results.

The abdominal scan of nightmares.

Speaking of nightmares, did anyone catch up with Novara Media's mao-ist struggle session? they're all crying and shaking like shitting dogs online because they said a disobliging thing about Arday (I believe Aaron Bastani suggested respectfully that Arday may have been less than truthful on some matters pertaining to his life history) and their supporters came for them faster than Lavientry Beria could liquidate an errant army general.

 

[goldenrodshortbread]

This is such a depressing and predictable turn. I know Nathan Cofnas. Although we are in different fields, Oxbridge is a small world and it’s relatively easy to cross paths among the ranks of the early career. Whatever you may think of his political views, his scholarly work is unplagiarised, original, interesting, challenging, and provokes debate. He has been prepared to discuss the uncomfortable. Sometimes, research findings, data, and ideas can be extremely difficult to work with. Most scholars now self-censor. He has not. Should we be shutting people down for talking about unpalatable things? Or should we take up debate with them, conduct further research, find out more, be curious? Cofnas is a highly intelligent man, and also autistic. In exposing Arday as an unqualified fantasist (again! He was not the first to do this!) he was performing an act of academic service. That he should lose his job at an entirely unrelated University, at the hands of transgender gynaecologist Petra de Sutter, is just the next rung on the ladder of insanity. I wish him well. We do not agree on many matters but I respect his integrity and the sense of injustice that spurred him to act.
Quillette article again for those interested in Cofnas: https://quillette.com/2026/08/14/cambridge-and-the-stigmatisation-of-intelligence-research/

 

[moldwarp]

This is such a depressing and predictable turn. I know Nathan Cofnas. Although we are in different fields, Oxbridge is a small world and it’s relatively easy to cross paths among the ranks of the early career. Whatever you may think of his political views, his scholarly work is unplagiarised, original, interesting, challenging, and provokes debate. He has been prepared to discuss the uncomfortable. Sometimes, research findings, data, and ideas can be extremely difficult to work with. Most scholars now self-censor. He has not. Should we be shutting people down for talking about unpalatable things? Or should we take up debate with them, conduct further research, find out more, be curious? Cofnas is a highly intelligent man, and also autistic. In exposing Arday as an unqualified fantasist (again! He was not the first to do this!) he was performing an act of academic service. That he should lose his job at an entirely unrelated University, at the hands of transgender gynaecologist Petra de Sutter, is just the next rung on the ladder of insanity. I wish him well. We do not agree on many matters but I respect his integrity and the sense of injustice that spurred him to act.
Quillette article again for those interested in Cofnas: https://quillette.com/2026/08/14/cambridge-and-the-stigmatisation-of-intelligence-research/

Just out of interest, would you say this self-censorship happens mostly in Humanities and Human Sciences, or do you think / suspect it's happening in the 'hard sciences' too?

Obviously we now know from the Fauci subpoena that the Wuhan lab leak evidence was censored and self-censored by biologists but that was under massive pressure from the US government amid a global pandemic, so I can understand scientists being afraid to voice their findings. I suppose I'm more thinking about scientific research in universities.

Also when you say 'self censorship', do you mean for political reasons, or for careerism?

Apols if OT but I think it's probably pretty important in the larger picture

 

[SunsetSmile]

This is such a depressing and predictable turn. I know Nathan Cofnas.

Most scholars now self-censor. He has not. Should we be shutting people down for talking about unpalatable things? Or should we take up debate with them, conduct further research, find out more, be curious? Cofnas is a highly intelligent man, and also autistic. In exposing Arday as an unqualified fantasist (again! He was not the first to do this!)

Quillette article again for those interested in Cofnas: https://quillette.com/2026/08/14/cambridge-and-the-stigmatisation-of-intelligence-research/

I did listen to his session with Starkey & whatever I may think about NC's views it is clear that he has a v strong intellect & analytical approach.

When he disclosed his autism diagnosis it did not come as a surprise. He has kept poking the bear even though many of Arday's detractors are unfavourably disposed towards him.

Not sure what this is going to achieve for him in the current climate.

 

[zcfthc5]

Speaking of nightmares, did anyone catch up with Novara Media's mao-ist struggle session? they're all crying and shaking like shitting dogs online because they said a disobliging thing about Arday (I believe Aaron Bastani suggested respectfully that Arday may have been less than truthful on some matters pertaining to his life history) and their supporters came for them faster than Lavientry Beria could liquidate an errant army general.

It felt uncomfortable to watch them desperately try to atone (for something I didn’t think they needed to)

The loud mob seem intent on doing to Cofnas everything that they complained happened to Arday.

My degree was at a well regarded (well marketed) uni, but i was at LSE for a bit in the same department as original uni. My gosh LSE standards were unblaggable. I made a mental note if I was ever hiring to take a lower grade graduate from there rather than a higher grade graduate from elsewhere.

 

[moldwarp]

It felt uncomfortable to watch them desperately try to atone (for something I didn’t think they needed to)

Exactly, I only watched a bit on twitter of the young guy trembling and crying and literally had to slap my phone face down because i was cringing so hard.

Same with the Jolyong hostage video but that was darker because the thing with Jolyon is I'm always uncomfortably aware that he seems to have the massive dark amorphous rage lurking below his surface that's constantly on the verge of exploding out. He giveth me the Ick.

 

[SunsetSmile]

My degree was at a well regarded (well marketed) uni, but i was at LSE for a bit in the same department as original uni. My gosh LSE standards were unblaggable. I made a mental note if I was ever hiring to take a lower grade graduate from there rather than a higher grade graduate from elsewhere.

Totally agree -

I'm old (ish) & have the degree class most students obtained pre 92. I was at a top 10 Uni. My degree was hard & my end result was pulled down by my being weaker at the complex mathmatical content of the course that could not be opted out of at this Uni. However the rigour of my degree enabled a career in investment banking.

In the second year a lecturer joined from a newer HE. Our tutor group received marks beween 82 -89% on our essays. None of the established lecturers graded over 67%. The results were, of course, moderated down but even then it was becoming obvious that there was a clear difference in output quality between different institutions.

 

[ButterTart]

This is such a depressing and predictable turn. I know Nathan Cofnas. Although we are in different fields, Oxbridge is a small world and it’s relatively easy to cross paths among the ranks of the early career. Whatever you may think of his political views, his scholarly work is unplagiarised, original, interesting, challenging, and provokes debate. He has been prepared to discuss the uncomfortable. Sometimes, research findings, data, and ideas can be extremely difficult to work with. Most scholars now self-censor. He has not. Should we be shutting people down for talking about unpalatable things? Or should we take up debate with them, conduct further research, find out more, be curious? Cofnas is a highly intelligent man, and also autistic. In exposing Arday as an unqualified fantasist (again! He was not the first to do this!) he was performing an act of academic service. That he should lose his job at an entirely unrelated University, at the hands of transgender gynaecologist Petra de Sutter, is just the next rung on the ladder of insanity. I wish him well. We do not agree on many matters but I respect his integrity and the sense of injustice that spurred him to act.
Quillette article again for those interested in Cofnas: https://quillette.com/2026/08/14/cambridge-and-the-stigmatisation-of-intelligence-research/

I wouldn’t describe his views on race as political. They’re just wrong on any level. And despite his intellect or academic abilities, they are going to colour how people think of him.

 

[HotesTilaire]

I did listen to his session with Starkey & whatever I may think about NC's views it is clear that he has a v strong intellect & analytical approach.

When he disclosed his autism diagnosis it did not come as a surprise. He has kept poking the bear even though many of Arday's detractors are unfavourably disposed towards him.

Not sure what this is going to achieve for him in the current climate.

If Cofnas is autistic then were in autistic professor inception

 

[Jelly Bean]

Does anyone else feel like they woke up in an alternate universe? The world has gone mad. Common sense and critical thinking have been abandoned it seems.

Meanwhile I’m still trying to understand how anyone can believe such an infantile style of writing is the product ot a Cambridge professor? Can someone make it make sense?

100%.
Anyone being slightly critical of a compulsive liar who did very well out of hoodwinking people is branded a racist who wanted him dead.
Meanwhile a defenceless old lady is bludgeoned to death in her own home and a lot of the same people feel she asked for it for having 'views'.

 

[goldenrodshortbread]

Just out of interest, would you say this self-censorship happens mostly in Humanities and Human Sciences, or do you think / suspect it's happening in the 'hard sciences' too?

Obviously we now know from the Fauci subpoena that the Wuhan lab leak evidence was censored and self-censored by biologists but that was under massive pressure from the US government amid a global pandemic, so I can understand scientists being afraid to voice their findings. I suppose I'm more thinking about scientific research in universities.

Also when you say 'self censorship', do you mean for political reasons, or for careerism?

Apols if OT but I think it's probably pretty important in the larger picture

I absolutely think it’s relevant - central to the debate in fact. Equivalent to the enormous Government pressure on the lab leak biologists is the culture of Do Not Offend for social scientists and humanities scholars. The problem is, all (ok, a majority) of science observes real-world phenomena. So we all see the same stuff. How and what gets reported (ie published) is a totally different matter. Massaging of data is not uncommon in hard science. The interest in the truth has waned. The interest in growing citations and gaining more funding, from funders who only want confirmation of their specific agendas, has increased. The issue of censorship specifically - I’d need to defer to someone in STEM (hello, colleagues, please chime in!).

We are all under the same conditions whereby we need to censor ourselves in committees and interactions with students (especially Undergraduates), for example. The marketisation of HE has influenced this. A colleague in Physics can no more say that they don’t want to share toilet facilities with men than a colleague in Comparative Literature. A Materials Engineer could not raise concern about their Lab being occupied by pro-Palestinian student mobs, any more than I could when my offices were taken over by protests for weeks. I couldn’t have asked politely for them to step aside so that I might access my place of work. What would the customers have said?! I had to just turn around and find somewhere else to work. We are required to be Allies. But only to the right people! Saying otherwise costs you your job. I can’t afford to lose my job; I’m a woman with children. Cofnas has less to lose as a man - he has spoken out. Good for him, but there’s no way I could ever issue a genuine opinion on anything at work, lest someone be Upset. Look how Upset everyone has become by a literal conman being exposed, as if he was the sole sacred black academic in the entire sector… So Much Upset! It’s INSANE. And so insulting to black colleagues. **bursts into flame once more**

 

[ButtonDownTheHutches]

Cofnas suspended by Ghent.

Well at least now there’s clear confirmation of why so many people pretended not to see what was in front of them.

 

[ButtonDownTheHutches]

A transgender gynaecologist

View attachment 4095904

So someone as tenuously tethered to reality as Arday seemingly was.

 

[PaddyDomino]

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

One of my friends is an associate professor at a Russell Group uni. Some of her students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) can barely speak English. They write their essays using AI. Supervision sessions happen via google translate.

We have a huge huge problem in HE in the UK. Arday is just the tip of the Iceberg

 

[didisaythatoutloudoops]

One of my friends is an associate professor at a Russell Group uni. Some of her students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) can barely speak English. They write their essays using AI. Supervision sessions happen via google translate.

We have a huge huge problem in HE in the UK. Arday is just the tip of the Iceberg

My daughter attended her graduation of her online Masters expecting to talk to students she had worked with on joint online tasks, having read their discussion contributions. Most struggled to form basic sentences in English.

Students aside; several of the course supervisors - when she could actually get hold of them - were similar. Her thesis supervisor, despite having a PhD in the topic, struggled to understand basic terms in the field when she mentioned them. On top of his clear lack of interest, lack of preparation for their meetings (he turned up at feedback sessions having not read her paper at all), he was an outright misogynist - with comments like 'can someone like you handle this topic' and 'that's a lot for you to understand' and that 'this section is too long, but too much talking is an issue for people like you'. She's a white female and her supervisor a black male in a STEM subject, to note.

A formal complaint finished with no investigation, suspension or discipline of the supervisor whatsoever, but the university conceded his lack of feedback/missing meetings/no response to emails was 'below the standard experience' and gave her a token 5% tuition fee refund.

 

[Carefree]

My mum did her degree in the 90s via the Open University. Her third is now equivalent to a 2:1, apparently. Luckily she's retired so it's not relevant so much now but it also ties into how standards are being lowered whilst costs are going up.

 

[Darvos]

If my book club does, I’m out. I’d rather read Enid Blyton.

Could you grab a comfy chair and a few therapeutic wines, sit there all impassive and report back?

 

[Catsexyfeline]

I absolutely think it’s relevant - central to the debate in fact. Equivalent to the enormous Government pressure on the lab leak biologists is the culture of Do Not Offend for social scientists and humanities scholars. The problem is, all (ok, a majority) of science observes real-world phenomena. So we all see the same stuff. How and what gets reported (ie published) is a totally different matter. Massaging of data is not uncommon in hard science. The interest in the truth has waned. The interest in growing citations and gaining more funding, from funders who only want confirmation of their specific agendas, has increased. The issue of censorship specifically - I’d need to defer to someone in STEM (hello, colleagues, please chime in!).

We are all under the same conditions whereby we need to censor ourselves in committees and interactions with students (especially Undergraduates), for example. The marketisation of HE has influenced this. A colleague in Physics can no more say that they don’t want to share toilet facilities with men than a colleague in Comparative Literature. A Materials Engineer could not raise concern about their Lab being occupied by pro-Palestinian student mobs, any more than I could when my offices were taken over by protests for weeks. I couldn’t have asked politely for them to step aside so that I might access my place of work. What would the customers have said?! I had to just turn around and find somewhere else to work. We are required to be Allies. But only to the right people! Saying otherwise costs you your job. I can’t afford to lose my job; I’m a woman with children. Cofnas has less to lose as a man - he has spoken out. Good for him, but there’s no way I could ever issue a genuine opinion on anything at work, lest someone be Upset. Look how Upset everyone has become by a literal conman being exposed, as if he was the sole sacred black academic in the entire sector… So Much Upset! It’s INSANE. And so insulting to black colleagues. **bursts into flame once more**

Yes. I refused to take unconscious bias training at work (being well aware of my biases but equally being able to keep them in check in my professional capacity) or include my pronouns on my email signature (I don’t care what pronouns people use for me - why should anyone writing to me concern themselves about my pronouns when they don’t concern me?) and so had to meet with HR to explain myself!

 

[Tabitha D]

This Arday business has really opened a Pandora’s box hasn’t it.