Exactly, intelligence is highly domain specific. You don't want a mathematician if your house is burning down.
Jason Arday #3
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Yep - I have a relative who is an expert in his field of academia (scientific) and has two PhDs. The part of his brain that deals with scientific things seems to have developed at the expense of the part that deals with spatial awareness and directions. He has absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever and it’s a family joke that he gets lost on the way to places that he’s been to many many times. His children used to have to give him directions when they were primary school age! Once he opened the door to an under stairs cupboard in my house, thinking it was the door into the hallway - this was in a small house with only one door leading in to the hall!
The New England Journal of Medicine weighs in with a ridiculously hyperbolic editorial.
https://voices.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/VOICESpost2600045
It says it's not being hyperbolic, whilst comparing the upholding of academic standards with lynchings in the US Deep South.
"They are trying to kill us"
" I want to be clear that I don’t care whether or not any of these allegations against Prof. Arday were true."
"Black academics know that we will always be held to a different standard, and it will look “fair” to most until perhaps we are dead"
I don't know if maybe it's because US racial politics are very different, but surely the issue here in the UK was that Arday was being held to LOWER standards?
Anyway, she finishes by comparing what happened to him (academic standards being looked into) with "trees bearing strange fruit being on the rise again in the US south). That is, white mobs lynching black people and hanging them from trees. Whilst saying "I don't believe there is such a thing as hyperbole".
https://voices.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/VOICESpost2600045
It says it's not being hyperbolic, whilst comparing the upholding of academic standards with lynchings in the US Deep South.
"They are trying to kill us"
" I want to be clear that I don’t care whether or not any of these allegations against Prof. Arday were true."
"Black academics know that we will always be held to a different standard, and it will look “fair” to most until perhaps we are dead"
I don't know if maybe it's because US racial politics are very different, but surely the issue here in the UK was that Arday was being held to LOWER standards?
Anyway, she finishes by comparing what happened to him (academic standards being looked into) with "trees bearing strange fruit being on the rise again in the US south). That is, white mobs lynching black people and hanging them from trees. Whilst saying "I don't believe there is such a thing as hyperbole".
That's awful, your poor friend would've been
That's reminded me, many years ago, we received a wedding invitation that included the bride and groom's sort code and bank account number. I guess money is better than unwanted gifts but it just seemed so crass (and still does, think it's more commonplace now too), especially given we were only invited to the evening reception which was a pay bar at 5 star hotel prices and no food
We seem to live in a world now where everything is everyone else's responsibility, including payment of funerals, weddings, etc.
Well that’s why diversity and inclusion came about; because treating everyone equally doesn’t happen and isn’t enough. Not all people do it, and systems and institutions were not and are not built to.
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I’ll make it easy for you - he’s a racist.The Nazis also believed their focus on “eugenics” was a scientific and philosophical pursuit. Nope. Just racism and deadly at that. And the amount of dog whistling in these threads (and how many people confidently state they are absolute not racist) is depressing.
Three Doctors!
I learned recently she played Black Adder's mother from s01! It's really obvious now I know!
She might not care about the allegations being true but let's not forget, he lied. Continously and with great vigour. It wasn't worth his career or life but they are choices he made.
Like has been highlighted from the start, and through the book he was probably expecting him to launch him further, academia wasn't easy for him at any turn so why determine this is what you want to do?
I can't get on with STEM subjects so I'm not a doctor or clinical researcher or anything along those lines. When working, I work in property and construction but away from labouring or trades. Because I know my limitations.
That's not race or gender related but my own skill levels. Expecting Wilmott Dixon, for example, to employ me as the head of trades across the country would be daft so I don’t.
JA's (falsified) backstory was used as weapon to get him somewhere he shouldn't have been. That's one of the biggest problems.
It’s a distraction. He produced clear unambiguous evidence that Arday had plagiarised his PhD.
And if Arday hadn’t sicced a law firm and the police on anyone who questioned him, it wouldn’t have been a man with questionable views about race who broke the story.
It’s very convenient to the framing though.
As for the New England Journal of Medicine
Arday’s ‘publications’ didn’t only focus on race and racism. His PhD didn’t. His one solo published book was under 100 pages long and about being black and liking britpop. Also massively plagiarised. He was an indifferent scholar who leveraged the work of other people to advance his own career. Anyone who thinks that’s somehow heroic is either stupid or someone who supports nepotism and other unfair advantages.
The majority of the money that she received direct was from a family member and one of her mum's best friend.
No, it’s not a distraction. It’s pretty key to how this became public. Two things can be true at the same time, that Arday was a liar and a fabulist and that Cofnas is a racist. And it’s impossible to separate that Cofnas went after Arday because he is a racist and what Arday did fit into his worldview. And because of his beliefs, he wasn’t afraid of being called a racist for doing it. That doesn’t excuse his racism, it confirms it.It’s a distraction. He produced clear unambiguous evidence that Arday had plagiarised his PhD.
And if Arday hadn’t sicced a law firm and the police on anyone who questioned him, it wouldn’t have been a man with questionable views about race who broke the story.
It’s very convenient to the framing though.
As for the New England Journal of Medicine
Arday’s ‘publications’ didn’t only focus on race and racism. His PhD didn’t. His one solo published book was under 100 pages long and about being black and liking britpop. Also massively plagiarised. He was an indifferent scholar who leveraged the work of other people to advance his own career. Anyone who thinks that’s somehow heroic is either stupid or someone who supports nepotism and other unfair advantages.
A powerful message indeed.
What a lovely group of soundbites, artfully decorated which indicates there was plenty of spare time where writing wasn’t necessary.
Cambridge is the least interesting thing about him.
Cambridge is the least interesting thing about him.
All I get from this is ‘I want everyone to see how quirky & artsy my notes are, ergo how cool & unconventional I am’
Looks like the doodles of a typical teen school kid that has a crush on the teacher to me 
This constant mantra of 'will unmeasurable, skill measurable' I really think is the crux of the issue (sorry if it's been touched on before).
If you truly, truly believe in the idea that will is the most important thing you can have, and that skill is inferior and secondary to it, why would you choose to pursue a career entirely based upon the idea of measurable skill? Academia is all about measurable achievement. That's what it runs on. A PhD is perhaps the greatest mark of measurable skill there is; because it's a huge effort that has a tangible award at the end of it. It's not like a craft where you might get better (or even great), because you don't tend to be able to categorically rank or judge a craft, you just get better and can subjectively compare yourself. A PhD is written proof of your skill in a very rare and rather unique way.
Not that a PhD doesn't require great will too, but it is very odd that someone who supposedly was so committed to the idea of will being triumphant would also put such great value on, well, measurable skill. It does make me wonder if this mantra was less about what he genuinely believed in and valued, but more about what he wanted others to value.
After all, if you've achieved your PhD by fraudulent means/plagiarism, you'd have a vested interest in promoting the idea that your will matters so much more. It effectively pushes the idea that the person who wants it most deserves it - and there's no questioning that Arday wanted it, even if he didn't have the skill himself to get there (and therefore plagiarised off others).
It is, for me, the most compelling part of the idea that Arday was very much maliciously utilising any methods available to achieve his goals, rather than having been swept into a kind of delusion by the university validating him constantly.
If you truly, truly believe in the idea that will is the most important thing you can have, and that skill is inferior and secondary to it, why would you choose to pursue a career entirely based upon the idea of measurable skill? Academia is all about measurable achievement. That's what it runs on. A PhD is perhaps the greatest mark of measurable skill there is; because it's a huge effort that has a tangible award at the end of it. It's not like a craft where you might get better (or even great), because you don't tend to be able to categorically rank or judge a craft, you just get better and can subjectively compare yourself. A PhD is written proof of your skill in a very rare and rather unique way.
Not that a PhD doesn't require great will too, but it is very odd that someone who supposedly was so committed to the idea of will being triumphant would also put such great value on, well, measurable skill. It does make me wonder if this mantra was less about what he genuinely believed in and valued, but more about what he wanted others to value.
After all, if you've achieved your PhD by fraudulent means/plagiarism, you'd have a vested interest in promoting the idea that your will matters so much more. It effectively pushes the idea that the person who wants it most deserves it - and there's no questioning that Arday wanted it, even if he didn't have the skill himself to get there (and therefore plagiarised off others).
It is, for me, the most compelling part of the idea that Arday was very much maliciously utilising any methods available to achieve his goals, rather than having been swept into a kind of delusion by the university validating him constantly.
This is a good piece I hadn’t read before (published before Arday’s death) focusing on the free speech aspect of the story:
www.fire.org
How the unraveling of Jason Arday's career and the UK's censorship collided
A Cambridge professor’s story unraveled. But Britain’s costly libel laws and overzealous police helped keep the scandal buried for months.
www.fire.org
This is a brilliant way of putting it, thank you!
What really interests me is education vs street smarts. Like, I'm not well educated (formally, I'm an auto-didact innit? lol) but I can spot a buller 100 yeards off. Hilary Creminlin and all the other Cambridge dons, obviously degrees and IQ scores coming out their pores, yet could not spot an obvious grift despite the evidence in his academic 'work', the fact that students at Roehampton had complained, journalists sniffing around, etc.
Why couldn't they see it? Was it just that typical Progressive racism that assumes Black people are somehow 'other' or 'wild' and therefore must be held to crushingly low academic standards (but then, Thomas Sowell...?). Or did Cambridge KNOW he was full of it but propped him up for political reasons (in which case they have no morals because they're happy to use a mentally ill person as a totem or a puppet)? or is it in fact possible to be highly educated but frighteningly low in street smarts / lived experience so that an obvious liar is not obvious at all to them?
I do often wonder about that third possibility. Because Jack Monroe was beloved by some very so-called intelligent people at one point. And likewise there were at one point highly intelligent people proclaiming that binary sex doesn't exist and that white people are the evillest destructors of all humanity all times and in all places.
Which sometimes makes me wonder if at least some of our cultural, political and academic elites are thick as tit and talking out of their holes. Which is, ya know. Worrying.
So true. I’m reminded of this every time I see “ever so clever” Neil Degrasse Tyson earnestly trying to explain why men should be allowed in women’s sports.
This is actually a really good article (and quite scary). Wish I'd known to say "Don't contact me anymore, I've got bad mental health!" to HMRC back in the dayThis is a good piece I hadn’t read before (published before Arday’s death) focusing on the free speech aspect of the story:
How the unraveling of Jason Arday's career and the UK's censorship collided
A Cambridge professor’s story unraveled. But Britain’s costly libel laws and overzealous police helped keep the scandal buried for months.
Or maybe that excuse only works for fake star academics with Dickensian backstories, I don't know
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