The Jason Arday scandal, part deux

[KatiePricesKnickers]

As the book launch is coming, let the discussion continue.

First thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5563599-the-jason-arday-scandal?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share
This is lifted from the thread in the education section, which is an interesting summary
https://www.ian-leslie.com/p/the-great-and-unfortunate-story-of?r=8w0woc&triedRedirect=true

Or AIBU with not letting this fade away?

The double standards would be funny if not so depressing.
Lefties posting absolute glee and joy at Ann Widdecombe's murder yet someone decided to take their own life and the people critical of a lying fantasist and the institution that seal clapped his delusions have 'lynched him'.

I wonder if hate filled lefties and hate filled 'be kind to trans or will cut your fucking head off' mentalists ever listen themselves and realise they are the problem.

Yeah, I do remember Heather Herbert now and the vile comment. Horrible thing to say.

There’s so

much spite and bile out there from all “sides” Apologies if I sounded dismissive, I was horrified by Ann’s murder. I don’t have much in common with her politics but admired her strength of character. She didn’t deserve the way she died. Jason Arday didn’t either.

I hope nothing horrible befalls Nathan Cofnas and he finds some peace and truth in his life. Ladies! All our intelligence, wit and rhetoric on these threads - let’s go and do something good - and real!

You do realise that “lefties”, whatever that means, aren’t a hive mind, right?

I am probably what you describe as a leftie, in this context clearly used almost as a slur, which is quite funny. I’d take ‘leftie’ any day instead of ‘Nige supporter’! I’d take luvvie too, or bleeding heart, or snowflake. Anyway I digress.

I was utterly appalled by Ann Widdecombe’s murder, and also appalled by the bullying that led to Jason Arday’s suicide. I didn’t know Ann W but I read up on her views and I found them completely nauseating, but I still thought her murder was utterly appalling. I also think that clearly Jason A had made up some stuff. Did he deserve to be hounded to the point where he felt all he could do was kill himself? No. Did Ann W deserve to be murdered because of her disgusting views? Also no.

I mean that’s pretty basic stuff hopefully?

Well said.

So any investigation into or exposure of lying, fraud and deceit is "hounding", is it?

How do you feel about the investigation into and exposure of lies told by Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock?

I'm talking about the many #Bekind yet ironically hate filled lefties celebrating murder and wanting to decapitate anyone who disagrees with them. So some but not all lefties. That better?

What on earth was 'nauseating' about Ann Widdecombe's views? She was very religious as are many people. Disagree fine no need to be nauseated.

Exposing a fraud and the misguided fools who hired him is not bullying. We can't let stuff like that go because they might commit suicide if they're found out.

When the right stop being lumped together, we will extend the same courtesy.

100% I’m also a leftie, snowflake, lentil chopping, tree hugging, empathetic (because that’s wrong now according to reform) bleeding heart! I couldn’t make a fast buck if my life depended on it! I actually rescued a bloody wasp from a water bucket the other day… and yet apparently, we’re all going round frightening Nigel Farage. I mean those red trousers are a crime against humanity….

We don't know that bullying that led to Jason Arday’s suicide We don't know that he was hounded to the point where he felt all he could do was kill himself. That's a belief, it's not a fact - an inquest will rule on that, but suicide isn't usually as simple as x = y and it's irresponsible to suggest that it is simple, or that publicity can make people commit suicide. A lot of public figures have been publicly ridiculed, hounded and even had credible rape and death threats (JK Rowling is an obvious one) and not committed suicide.

My personal belief is that he was a narcissist who went into ego collapse, because a person with narcissistic personality disorder is unlikely to be capable of bearing the knowledge that people have seen through them and are making fun of them. You can Google narcissistic ego collapse if you're interested. I might be totally wrong but it's a good fit with his charm, fantasism, and strong negative reaction to challenge, and with the circumstances of his death.

TLDR: we know AW was murdered, we don't know Jason Arday was hounded into suicide

👏 👏

I still don't think it's bullying to say that certain claims don't appear to have plausibility.

No but probably having your photo on newspapers and TV for day after day might.

Think about bullying at school or work. One person commenting on your weight,thin hair, wonky eye might not be bullying. Everyone in your office doing it for a fortnight and publishing it in the company newsletter would be.

..or thread after thread about Nigel Farage. He seems to be one of the biggest hate targets now Boris is no longer at the forefront. He's called all the names under the sun and he is most definitely subjected to pitchfork lynch mob mentality. It often reminds me of the disturbing scene in the earlier part of Handmaid's tale. I think it's obvious which one.

Even if you've previously been in the company newsletter every other month with pieces about your amazing charity fundraising and how you've achieved record sales figures, and now it turns out actually you didn't do half the sponsored bake sales you said you did, and most of your brilliant sales figures were because you'd nicked Margaret's sales and claimed they were yours?

He was a public figure, he courted publicity and Cambridge used him for publicity. He wasn't an anonymous academic shut in a dusty library suddenly thrown into the limelight.

I wasn't commenting on his truthfulness or worthiness, just if can be bullying.

Always? How about burning down migrant hotels? I seem to remember someone who advocated this being a right wing hero.

Of course the word investigation isn’t a synonym for hounding. I don’t object to anything being investigated. But is that what happened with JA? Simply an investigation? A clinical, level headed, objective investigation? Nothing beyond that?

Really? You don’t know?

The evidence that Jason Arday was a DEI appointment is inherent in the fact that he was under qualified for the role.
The way Cambridge maximised publicity about him being the youngest black professor etc is proof of what motivated them to appoint him.
Everyone was too scared to point out that his appointment was DEI gone mad for fear of being called racist. The fact that he killed himself doesn’t change any of this.

She said 'for all I care' not advocating so much as 'whatever'. Lucy Connolly is not a right wing 'hero' you mustn't believe everything you read in the tabloids.

Ok all the decapitate/burn/death to is usually the #BeKind purple haired lefties. Not all of them as I did then go on to say if you rtft. A lot of them.

In all honesty, crass as this sounds, what odds would you put on it not being suicide? But time will tell, you’re right. Too many tragic deaths, too sad for words. We should stop picking over it and definitely stop pitting them against each other.

Why isn’t a phd qualification enough?

We dont know what made him do it, unless you're psychic?

When people kill themselves theres always the compulsion to try to blame others. The person who did it is responsible. If there were underlying mh factors that contributed we'll find out at inquest.

You know people are 'hounded' all the time in the media and social media. JK Rowling for example, a big target for tra nutters. If everyone killed themselves due to public criticism and judgements we'd have no one in the public eye left.

He was given a professorial chair. Not just a professor. This is the most senior academic position that can be awarded. These are given to true global academic stars with 20 years plus of field leading research. I would guess you would need to be at least mid 50s before you get that. JA as an academic was utterly unqualified even for the position of lecturer. Many people with PhDs never get beyond senior lecturer levels in a whole career. This was the most outrageous example of DEI hiring that most people would have heard of.