Was Jason Arday just the perfect victim?

[KellyK2026]

Surely I can’t be the only one that feels like Jason Arday was a victim, right? Yesterday he was found dead and I feel bad for him. Here’s the reasons why I think he was a victim:

1. It is absolutely insane to me that Cambridge University would appoint him as a Professor when he was in the early stages of his career. It’s practically unheard of. At any university you typically have to earn your dues (which means working as an academic for many years) OR do something truly special, like a Nobel Prize nomination, to be promoted to Professor. I cannot imagine the amount of pressure he had been under to prove himself and likely had a tremendous amount of imposter syndrome. Cambridge let him down.
2. I’ve worked in academia for many years, and let me tell you, academics are under a tremendous amount of pressure to publish. This pressure can compromise quality. Arday isn’t the first nor will he be the last to publish questionable papers.
3. As I’ve worked in academia for years, I’ve experienced academics make racist and sexist remarks first hand. One white academic I worked with got drunk at a work get together and started a rant about how Black people shouldn't be president (this was when Obama was in power), that Obama was a Muslim and interracial relationships were ‘disgusting’. What made this somewhat even worse was that this particular academic wrote about racism in the public sphere, so he profited from writing about Black struggles while harbouring these personal views. There was no repercussions for him, despite presenting himself as something other than what he was.
4. I’ve also been sexually assaulted at a conference by a male academic. No repercussions for him either and he no doubt pretends to be a feminist in his work.
5. I don’t think it’s in doubt that Arday had autism. Now I don’t know how it affected him personally, but, again, that must’ve been extremely difficult and perhaps even blurred what is and isn’t acceptable in higher education.
6. He was also cleared of plagiarism but, again, so many academics have plagiarised ideas and papers, but they haven’t been strung up like Arday has been.

So, long story short, I feel like Cambridge let him down. And I feel like he was targeted because there’s plenty of other examples but they never get called out and nobody cares. It was a witch hunt. But I’d be interested to hear what others have to say on this matter.

She just bats that off and carries on banging on about Cambridge. I'm not quite sure what she was going to achieve but I'm pretty sure it's not helpful to anyone.

The media jumping on him as they have done is not ok.

But we do have to remember that he made himself very public. This isn't some unknown academic.

From 2015 when he finished his studies, he rose at an astounding rate to become a professor at one of, if not the prime academic University in the UK. That's fact not fiction.

His achievements were not mediocre, they were outstanding but we have to ask ourselves what goes on in the head of someone of this mans calibre that makes him think those incredible achievements are not good enough, to such an extent that he lies about other achievements - what made him so insecure?

Wow I didn't know they divorced 7 years ago. That would answer the question about how come his family didn't speak out about what was true or made up, as queried up thread.

The achievements were not real, that's why.

His work is not outstanding. He bounced up grades because he was a black man when BLM was going nuts. Even Starmer got on his knees the pathetic little man. That mania promoted idiot liars like Arday.

He has explained why he lied to the guardian. He said he thought you would just believe me. Gormless liberal women did of course believe he was a handy BLM mascot. It's all absolute cringe.

His eyes seem strangely wide in all the photos- is this a sign of mental illness in some cases?

I think he may have feared a possible prosecution for fraud/ obtaining his position by misrepresentation. There is no knowing what was going on in his head in those last days, or what future humiliations he was imagining.

Narcissists are like that though - they can come across as very charming until you challenge their narrative.

innocent? I’ve said countless times he clearly lied. You’re trying to paint an un-nuanced narrative about me just as you are JA. I don’t have to agree with everything you’re saying, that doesn’t mean that I think he was absolutely innocent. He was vulnerable.

And you aren’t even qualified to diagnose a dead man as narcissistic. So that’s a mute point.

Well actually a lot of people agree. In fact there’s petition online with 100k signatures that want it looking into. Just because you don’t want to acknowledge that a lot of people feel the same doesn’t mean that they don’t.

But... Again... I have acknowledged that.

Anyone can describe someone elses behaviour as Narcissistic. That is not the same as making an armchair diagnosis of a specific personality disorder.

Grandiose lying and manipulative lying are narcissitic behaviours.

The UK population is 69 million, the majority of people either don't agree or don't give a shit!

So what I’m saying is unhelpful but actually a lot of people agree and actually more people are signing petitions wanting the media and Cambridge to be investigated? You do realise what you’ve said doesn’t even make sense. What you’re saying is unhelpful. I don’t see 100k people starting a petition supporting your argument. I don’t see students of JA who disliked him setting up a webpage giving examples of what they didn’t like. Your argument is full of ‘what-ifs’ without having the backing of a formal investigation which, I repeat, I am in support of doing as I don’t believe it is justified to hang a man without having all the evidence first. That should be pretty normal in a democracy.

And clearly the majority don’t give a shit about your line of argument as zero people have set up a petition wanting JA investigated and Cambridge and the media vindicated.

The media didn’t hang him as you put it; he hung hinself. It’s sad that he felt he couldn’t carry on but that really is down to him. He could have got through it all.

i notice there are statements from his family but who are they? He wasn’t married anymore and didn’t live with his kids so who are this family of his? They certainly weren’t with him when he died. There’s an awful lot that’s opaque and vague around JA and the lies cloud the landscape even more. I certainly don’t trust the race baiters (Abbott, Andrew’s etc) who have been quick to get on board. The GLP and academics from LJMU to Cambridge will be covering their backs and welcoming any distraction from whatever their roles played in this maelstrom of EDI madness.

Ultimately. JA was a victim but a willing one seeing as victimhood was a large part of his schtick and he dined out on how he overcame it all, until he didn’t.

They don’t need to, there’s already an investigation - that’s the whole point!

Ofcourse we want Cambridge and everyone involved in employing Arday in every role he ever held investigated.

What we don't need or want is a witch hunt against newspapers and reporters for doing their jobs. Arday wasn't hounded by anyone, he did however receive the usual response from the press when they find out that one of there own has been threatened with lawyers and reported to the police for sending 3 polite emails asking valid questions.

A good example of this is the editor of the Scottish express being reported to the police by a TRA for a hate crime because his paper accurately quoted trial testimony from the Sandie Peggie trial that called Theodore Upton a man and used he/him pronouns for him, the police didn't take it further than an initial phone call, however the editor and his entire staff now go after TRAs and everyone who pushes gender ideology like a dog with a bone and always correctly report the sex of the trans person they are reporting on. Basically 1 TRA peaked an entire newspaper, Arday with his lies fantasies, lawyers and police investigation peaked the entire press including the guardian against arday and those who promoted him.

We also dont need to be handing the people who promoted him a get out of jail free card by letting the false narrative that he was hounded to death by the racist right wing press.

JA has already been investigate and exposed to a significant extent, just people like you are failing to see what is clearly being presented to them.

The Media doesn't need vindicating, they have done nothing wrong, and they have shown themselves as a profession to be more than capable of supporting each other. For now I'm happy to leave them to it. Obviosuly if this JA BS goes anywhere I'll be more than happy to campaign for freedom of speech/press, but not really necessary right now.

Also the 100k people signing the petition to look into this situation need to be very careful what they wish for, because if there is an unbiased thorough investigation your hero JA is highly unlikely to come out of it smelling of roses, as we all know he lied, this is in absolutely no doubt, we just don't know the extent of it yet!!

Totally agree with this post

“resign with dignity or be sacked” is pretty common in most professions

I know in my own school that this has been quietly suggested to people when it is obvious an investigation for misconduct of some sort will cause a fuss and unlikely to go the way of the staff member involved.

Resigning may have been his own idea or legal advice or someone at the university had a word in his ear.

It has been absorbed into the omnicause. The same people fly Palestine flags and shout support for Hamas, scream ‘transwomen are women’ demanding men be allowed watch girls get changed, think we should have open borders (until migrates get placed in their community), and think nothing of continuously hounding JK Rowling for years with death threats.

But they are already doing that?!

This is so bizarre!!

This has nothing to do with this. Stop making it a left wing/right wing debate. It’s ridiculous.