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.

Friend or not, I would find it completely distasteful if someone was acting without authority of the family for a go fund me.

Given the circumstances, having a go fund me is bad optics.

Just because he died does not mean he was exonerated.

No neither do I

It’s vastly different from the other JA threads although, this one still remains open which is a good thing unless MN have an arbitrary limit of 40 pages only…

I don't think I saw the others apart from fleetingly

Personally I’ve not donated to it, but I do think others are entitled to. It’s raised almost 200k last time I checked. I know quite a few journalists who have started to speak openly about how they regret how the story was reported and feel some sort of responsibility, so perhaps donating helps them in some way. And perhaps the family will donate some of it to the charities JA supported in his life. Who knows at this point.

It makes zero difference for me whether you believe it or not honestly.

Yes, who knows, hopefully some good will come off this entire situation.

Why do you keep replying to everything I say?
I was talking to another poster?! I couldn't give a shit what you think?! Leave me alone!!!

You are aware that you started it by responding to me when I was talking to another commenter about what she was saying about her experience with autism, right? And that it’s your comments that have been deleted for breaking MNHQ rules, right?

This is nuts.

Zero basis for my earlier post to have been deleted.

OP, do you just report every post not agreeing with you?

Can you name some journalists that wrote negative articles about JA that have rescinded and said they feel bad?

I think you gaslighting by saying why are you responding to me? When you just need to scroll up a few comments to see that it was you know asked ME a question is actually nuts.

Yes that's exactly what she's doing. I have no idea why you were deleted, you didn't say anything wrong.

Mathew Syd from The Times and Camilla Tominey and Tim Stanley from the Telegraph have all expressed remorse and said they felt accountable on some level. Stanley actually said he spent the entire weekend in confession. I haven’t done a deep dive into all journalists, but that’s just a couple and I came across them without searching for it and thought it was interesting.

So when a journalist says in front of a camera that they feel guilty and wanted to address it, I should ignore it? I’m not sure what your point is?

MauriceTheMussel
People don’t post so that YOU read them.

Just as well, since I seem to remember that poster has said she hasn't read all the posts on the thread.

Whilst I am here: for information, when she wrote "it was AskingQuestionsAllTheTime whose comments were deleted" clearly she meant "comment"; only one of my posts so far has been removed by MNHQ, though this one may well join it I suppose. I just wouldn't want her record for being a stickler for truth to be tarnished by an inaccuracy.

It is interesting how people who disagree with the OP seem to have posts deleted, though, isn't it.

I know. And I really don't think I said anything wrong?
I've been accused of gaslighting and OP now seems to be presenting as tho she knew a deceased man which is so unpalatable I don't really know where to go with it but that's apparently ok?

I'm with you :-)