Many thanks as ever for this miraculous overview and analysis of the overflowing river on all aspects of the intriguing Jason Arday story. For most of us who struggle and fail to even read a fraction of the stuff let alone know how to get our heads around it all, reading a careful balanced account is wonderful. It's therapeutic in the way great investigative journalism or great history or great inquiry reports are therapeutic. But those take years if not decades of team work to produce. Helen does it in a few days, and presumably single handed. The key feature is her simple recognition of the limits of what she can and can't be sure of, her own biases, and what she said that she now revises. It wouldn't be therapeutic if you didn't trust your therapist!
PS Further evidence of superhuman powers is to do this decade of work in a few days while playing "speed chess" with scores of dissenters on X to the point of (let's call it) "being cancelled" for now, and not need a few weeks convalescence to recover.
PPS And like the NHS you get the same service as those who subscribe (aka pay our taxes!)
In 2001, Spike Lee did a university lecture tour in which he lamented Hollywood's use of the damaging trope of the Magic Negro. Presumably he did not visit Cambridge.
Ash Sarkar, a usual suspect of course, is quoted by you as saying some are treating Jason Arday as “a stand-in for an entire race”. This is precisely what Diane Abbott has claimed for him in her Trafalgar Square speech.
Thank you for your detailed and balanced analysis.
I had saved your post but I am now unable to navigate to it on Substack however I try. It gives me a blank frozen screen. I am fortunately not a conspiracy theorist!
Thank you for a superb summary of this complex and multifaceted story. I am not sure it could have broken in quite the way it has at an easier moment. Cracks are appearing around identity ideology in all its forms which are allowing a space to appear to make connections that would not have been possible a few short years ago.
Another excellent essay by Helen Pluckrose (unsurprising, I know!).
Meanwhile, there have been so many people whose careers and reputations, not to mention lives, have been destroyed by the woke mobs -- and who didn't lie and confabulate or sic powerful law firms on their critics -- yet who haven't received even a fraction of the attention Arday is receiving. Richard Bilkszto, to cite just one example:
"Former principal who sued TDSB over alleged bullying during anti-racism training dies by suicide"
I also found the story, and the man, fascinating. And cannot keep my brain from speculating about both his thought processes and the actual facts of his life. He can no longer provide these so will remain a mystery. Or an ink blot onto which others will project their preferred stories.
My own imagined Jason Arday starts as a very smart kid of very modest means and some degree of learning disability who, like many (most?) people, wanted more from life but lived in a world that offered little possibility of that. (A few escape via athletics; that seems to have been his initial plan). Then he encountered the CSJ script. It had a leading, high status character, the victim/hero, that looked like a good fit for him. He studied the role for years, learned the lines and sailed through the auditions. No one seemed interested in whether his actual life matched the character’s, so he made the character bigger and bigger. The producers loved it and he ended up on the big stage. He really liked it on that stage and was genuinely distressed and thought it unfair when some people tried to take it away from him because of the divergence between his actual backstory and the character’s.
As to the claims that it is racist to point out the divergence: CSJ theory, and more specifically Critical Race Theory, are extraordinarily reductionist frameworks for understanding the world. Those who have been steeped in it long enough simply have no analytic lens other than ‘racism’ to make sense of the situation. On the other hand, some CRTers are more opportunist than true believer and know that an accusation of racism has been a very effective defense against scrutiny of dubious claims and practices. But at some point most people are going to have to acknowledge that even if the Emperor isn’t completely naked, he’s rather scantily clad.
To become a professor at any university requires multiple degrees and across those degrees, lengthy interactions with dozens of mentors/professors. Apparently no one caught the plagiarism or addressed the unbelievably wild stories. Low expectations, laziness, DEI/postmodern absolutions and professors fears of being accused of racism are a few explanations. But, clearly this mess should have never occurred.
My grandmother was a farmer, who among many other things, raised chickens. Luckily, I did not witness this on my summer visits, but I was certainly disturbed when she shared that often when one chicken was injured others pecked it to death. There's no question in my mind that some of those who piled on the very odd case of Jason Arday were following that base instinct. You should be ashamed.
More generally, to use...again a very ODD individual case ... to prove or disprove a theory is just so ridiculous.
Weird things happen. These are not the proper basis for scholarly, or any other kind of rational analysis.
The investigation by Cambridge which was in process was the proper format for this to be considered.
I’m under the impression that absent the intense media scrutiny Cambridge would have continued its several year history of refusing to investigate and of denouncing as racist anyone raising the issue.
Many thanks as ever for this miraculous overview and analysis of the overflowing river on all aspects of the intriguing Jason Arday story. For most of us who struggle and fail to even read a fraction of the stuff let alone know how to get our heads around it all, reading a careful balanced account is wonderful. It's therapeutic in the way great investigative journalism or great history or great inquiry reports are therapeutic. But those take years if not decades of team work to produce. Helen does it in a few days, and presumably single handed. The key feature is her simple recognition of the limits of what she can and can't be sure of, her own biases, and what she said that she now revises. It wouldn't be therapeutic if you didn't trust your therapist!
PS Further evidence of superhuman powers is to do this decade of work in a few days while playing "speed chess" with scores of dissenters on X to the point of (let's call it) "being cancelled" for now, and not need a few weeks convalescence to recover.
PPS And like the NHS you get the same service as those who subscribe (aka pay our taxes!)
In 2001, Spike Lee did a university lecture tour in which he lamented Hollywood's use of the damaging trope of the Magic Negro. Presumably he did not visit Cambridge.
Ash Sarkar, a usual suspect of course, is quoted by you as saying some are treating Jason Arday as “a stand-in for an entire race”. This is precisely what Diane Abbott has claimed for him in her Trafalgar Square speech.
Thank you for your detailed and balanced analysis.
The link in my saved to own mail message no longer works. Perhaps I have been censored!
I had saved your post but I am now unable to navigate to it on Substack however I try. It gives me a blank frozen screen. I am fortunately not a conspiracy theorist!
Oh! Yes, well done at not becoming a conspiracy theorist. Substack will absolutely not censor me!
As usual, cogent and well-expressed. Thank you for being on the front lines.
Thank you for a superb summary of this complex and multifaceted story. I am not sure it could have broken in quite the way it has at an easier moment. Cracks are appearing around identity ideology in all its forms which are allowing a space to appear to make connections that would not have been possible a few short years ago.
Another excellent essay by Helen Pluckrose (unsurprising, I know!).
Meanwhile, there have been so many people whose careers and reputations, not to mention lives, have been destroyed by the woke mobs -- and who didn't lie and confabulate or sic powerful law firms on their critics -- yet who haven't received even a fraction of the attention Arday is receiving. Richard Bilkszto, to cite just one example:
"Former principal who sued TDSB over alleged bullying during anti-racism training dies by suicide"
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/former-principal-who-sued-tdsb-over-alleged-bullying-during-anti-racism-training-dies-by-suicide/article_4b9f98a9-7394-5517-909b-c69eb581aec9.html
I also found the story, and the man, fascinating. And cannot keep my brain from speculating about both his thought processes and the actual facts of his life. He can no longer provide these so will remain a mystery. Or an ink blot onto which others will project their preferred stories.
My own imagined Jason Arday starts as a very smart kid of very modest means and some degree of learning disability who, like many (most?) people, wanted more from life but lived in a world that offered little possibility of that. (A few escape via athletics; that seems to have been his initial plan). Then he encountered the CSJ script. It had a leading, high status character, the victim/hero, that looked like a good fit for him. He studied the role for years, learned the lines and sailed through the auditions. No one seemed interested in whether his actual life matched the character’s, so he made the character bigger and bigger. The producers loved it and he ended up on the big stage. He really liked it on that stage and was genuinely distressed and thought it unfair when some people tried to take it away from him because of the divergence between his actual backstory and the character’s.
As to the claims that it is racist to point out the divergence: CSJ theory, and more specifically Critical Race Theory, are extraordinarily reductionist frameworks for understanding the world. Those who have been steeped in it long enough simply have no analytic lens other than ‘racism’ to make sense of the situation. On the other hand, some CRTers are more opportunist than true believer and know that an accusation of racism has been a very effective defense against scrutiny of dubious claims and practices. But at some point most people are going to have to acknowledge that even if the Emperor isn’t completely naked, he’s rather scantily clad.
To become a professor at any university requires multiple degrees and across those degrees, lengthy interactions with dozens of mentors/professors. Apparently no one caught the plagiarism or addressed the unbelievably wild stories. Low expectations, laziness, DEI/postmodern absolutions and professors fears of being accused of racism are a few explanations. But, clearly this mess should have never occurred.
https://x.com/comacfreedom/status/2089698863087055204?s=46&t=9iB-a4roeFO_2HnxVIWbzg
A repost by the Campaign for Academic Freedom to claims asserted at the Trafalgar Square rally for Arday.
My grandmother was a farmer, who among many other things, raised chickens. Luckily, I did not witness this on my summer visits, but I was certainly disturbed when she shared that often when one chicken was injured others pecked it to death. There's no question in my mind that some of those who piled on the very odd case of Jason Arday were following that base instinct. You should be ashamed.
More generally, to use...again a very ODD individual case ... to prove or disprove a theory is just so ridiculous.
Weird things happen. These are not the proper basis for scholarly, or any other kind of rational analysis.
The investigation by Cambridge which was in process was the proper format for this to be considered.
I’m under the impression that absent the intense media scrutiny Cambridge would have continued its several year history of refusing to investigate and of denouncing as racist anyone raising the issue.