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Aug 5
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Steve Sailer's avatar

I'm sorry, I didn't intend to delete your comment. I missed.

Steve

Kathleen Lowrey's avatar

No worries just a joke anyway

William Whorton's avatar

That's a pretty good run for a Ghanaian retard.

SlowlyReading's avatar

Several people on Twitter have observed that Dr. Arday's resignation letter appears to be fully AI-generated.

Steve Sailer's avatar

It reads better than most of his stuff.

PapayaSF's avatar

Cambridge could replace him with AI tuned to spew DEI blather. Cheaper and just as much scholarly value.

Stefan Grossman's avatar

Replacing him with a good vacuum cleaner would be more helpful to the university!

kaganovitch's avatar

I wonder if the book and OSU professorship in his CV are just examples of AI 'hallucination'?

PhilH's avatar

Well it’s someone’s imagination.

Karen's avatar

It sounded so polished I ran it through Pangram. They analyzed it as 100% AI.

Mike Conrad's avatar

It's actually pretty well-calibrated. Very careful to fit the current reality insofar as it admits absolutely nothing while making it clear at every turn that *teh racism* has consumed yet another noble, innocent victim. Nearly destroyed his life! (We all need to do better. So much better.)

My own suggestion would be to exercise just the tiniest bit of scrutiny *before* hiring Magic Negroes for important positions, rather than letting Nazis expose inconvenient facts later on. As Nazis are wont to do, you know.

But in our current reality, we're not permitted even to ask questions of the Numinous Ones, much less bring to bear any kind of scrutiny upon their inevitably tall tales. Quite the conundrum, innit?

Gadsden Flag's avatar

Nazis? Seriously? Do you really believe the people behind the investigation are Nazis? And the problem is not a conundrum - it is government enforced anti-White racism.

Stefan Grossman's avatar

I think (hope) he was being facetious!

Mike Conrad's avatar

Please allow me my regular flights into bitter irony. They're almost all I have left at this point.

Gadsden Flag's avatar

Sorry I missed your irony, but there are so many nitwits who do think along those lines. And this is an unlocked post so today the trolls are able to let their freak flags fly.

Nameless For Now's avatar

The trolls aren't smart enough for Substack.

Kent Gatewood's avatar

Pretty sure Comrade Stalin clarified his earlier ruling.

The world contains two type of people.

Communist and fascists.

Actually, fascists rhetorically morph into Nazis.

Either be a communist or be a Nazi.

rodger's avatar

Pretty sure that was a sarcastic. Idk

AnotherDad's avatar

> My own suggestion would be to exercise just the tiniest bit of scrutiny *before* hiring Magic Negroes for important positions, rather than letting Nazis expose inconvenient facts later on. As Nazis are wont to do, you know.

But in our current reality, we're not permitted even to ask questions of the Numinous Ones, much less bring to bear any kind of scrutiny upon their inevitably tall tales. Quite the conundrum, innit? <

Excellent point Mike. You'd think it would be in the virtuous apparatchiks own institutional and ideological interest to not have their minority--esp. black--pets self-destruct and embarrass the woke project. But minoritarian ideology precludes the sort of scrutiny for competence level--whiteness!, structural racism!--to avoid that.

Generally, one thinks "they just don't want to" scrutinize. But really it is probably more like 90% "they just don't want to" and 10% "they can't".

Mike Conrad's avatar

Thanks, and do you know what this "conundrum" reminds me of? My state is one of many which now enforce "Ban the Box" hiring practices, whereby employers are not permitted to enquire about little things like violent felonies in applicants' personal histories.

Supposedly we're permitted to do so before final decisions are made, but only in specific ways, and anyway who ever dares to be the first one to stop clapping?

Oddly enough, we now have a spate of violent crimes among these hires, and the same people who agitated for Ban the Box are now furious that hires weren't vetted more carefully. We call these people AWFULs.

rodger's avatar

Doyble bonus point for Magical Negro reference. Lol.

We live in fugazzi world, everything is fake and gay.

The Last Real Calvinist's avatar

Just at a glance, Arday's letter has several classic AI tells, e.g. at least one 'not that, but this' construction, plus relentless triads, i.e. 'this, that, and a similar thing'. It's also bland and banal -- the 'heartfelt' phrases are exactly what you expect them to be.

Headsup's avatar

Actually there's no doubt about it. Faking it til the end.

The Last Real Calvinist's avatar

Gotta dance with the gal that brung ya . . . .

Gary S.'s avatar

It is difficult to believe that he is literate enough to write that essay, assuming that Jason Arday is a real person. One is very unlikely to be illiterate until one's late teens and ever be a skilled writer or speaker.

PE Bird's avatar

But if you visit a university and you happen to be a professor, doesn't that make you a visiting professor?

Steve Sailer's avatar

I think the traditional term at Cambridge since 1200 has been "Professor-errant."

Nameless For Now's avatar

The letter is AI-generated.

https://x.com/ArtemisConsort/status/2085087939990811062?s=20

I skipped over part of this post at first and thought the book title was you making a joke. But, no. Good gosh.

Cofnas would be good. So would you. So would anyone who's just fitting, regardless of race. Although George Santos would be really funny...

Steve Sailer's avatar

Former Republican Congressman George Santos should announce his candidacy to replace Jason Arday as Cambridge Professor of the Sociology of Education, pledging to maintain full continuity of the norms, standards, and traditions so memorably embodied by former Prof Arday.

Nameless For Now's avatar

Yes, Steve, I saw this post on X already. I'll accept the minor plagiarism of my own work out of respect for my elders, and because this is really funny.

And, even better, he, too, is a POC. Can't wait to write in my novel how, growing up, I always looked up to George Santos as a fellow Latino liar.

PhilH's avatar

It’s too bad really. It was finally his moment to shine and actually write something heartfelt people might actually read. No one's too picky about the wording of a resignation letter because it's usually written at a pretty emotional time in one's life.

Stefan Grossman's avatar

At this point, it would be a good question to ask if Arday is actually literate.

Nameless For Now's avatar

He probably has basic literacy, but nothing beyond that.

RevelinConcentration's avatar

Anyone know how many plagiarism scandals there are annually across the thousands of colleges and universities around the world? A strange world where we fixate on just one.

Nameless For Now's avatar

It's because the level of lying here is on par with George Santos.

Headsup's avatar

No not at all. It's way, WAY beyond and above Santos. Way above Smollet. This is the gold standard. It hit the highest level at the very top of the ivory tower.

Nameless For Now's avatar

I guess I was just sad one of my races no longer has History's Greatest Liar now that George Santos has been dethroned.

Gary in Gramercy's avatar

Don't worry: there will be plenty more to fixate on in the very near future. If I were Lisa Cook, former economics prof at Michigan State -- and now a Federal Reserve governor, whom the Supreme Court has effectively barred the Executive Branch from firing -- I would be reviewing all of my academic publications, including my Ph.D. dissertation, for possible "textual discrepancies." You can bet that Christopher Rufo and the like will do so on their own initiative.

Mike Conrad's avatar

QUOTE "A strange world where we fixate on just one."

I actually enjoy this attitude. We're supposed to ignore this "plagiarism scandal" because Reasons, never mind the spectacular edifice of lies this guy has constructed. May I please remind you that the man has so far admitted to approximately none of it?

This was, BTW, the argument that Jackie Coakley's defenders used. Why quibble with the details when the underlying issue is so urgent? Everyone gets the details wrong sometimes! As the notorious Emily Renda asked at the time: "Toward what end are we scrutinizing?"

Either you're on the Right Side of History — in which case anything and everything you do is permissible – or you deserve to be spat out by Polite Society. And believe me, you will be.

Facts are nothing more than white supremacist constructs — we get that. But please show us where white academics were permitted to engage in academic dishonesty on anything like this scale? Arday says it happens all the time but offers a grand total of zero examples. Can you do better, please?

Failing that, go run a few dozen marathons next month. They're good for the soul, you know.

Headsup's avatar

Huh. 'Fixate on just one'. What kind of a statement is that? Dude, this IS the ONE to fixate on. Plse pay attention.

David's avatar

So apparently he is a conman and a fabulist. And/or mentally disturbed. I’m confident the goodthink crowd still view Cofnas as a vile racist for exposing him.

AM's avatar

Incredible. Cambridge has so little credibility. I’d bring a lawsuit if I were a student. So fraudulent.

Barnard's avatar

That is part of the reason things like this happen, virtually no one in academia thinks they will ever be held to any objective standard as long as they support the current progressive trend. I have hoped to see lawsuits against schools that offered postgrad humanities degrees knowing there was a very small chance that the student using the degree to get a job would be able to payback her student loans. The Dept of Education is working to cutoff the loans, but the administrators who pushed them for decades should still be punished.

DrMcleod's avatar

Many of the academic staff are very far from being gruntled over this matter. I think that further resignations may be forthcoming.

AnotherDad's avatar

> In general, I’m happy with Substack. But they could work a little harder to enable us writers to finetune the Substack experience as they see fit. <

It could also do much better with the experience it offers readers with regard to comments.

For a retired gentleman of leisure like myself, I come to iSteve, not just for Steve's delightful servings of noticing, but for the his intelligent readership's commentary.

But if I want to do a very simple "hey has anyone posted anything interest on the latest iSteve, since read it this morning", I have to

-- scroll down to comments

-- get to the bottom (the original tranche displayed is always too small to begin with) and hit the load more button

-- perhaps repeat the bottom/load more again

-- then go back and maybe switch the display to "newest first"

Ron Unz, solved this problem pretty cleanly and his site--I assume--created a cookie that told the site where you were. But even without that, if I could just immediately click to comments and "newest first" and actually get them--a trivial operation--that would be helpful. Likewise, the ability to get the full boat, or access further pages, right from the top. This is really obvious and routine user experience stuff. Just get on with it.

Nameless For Now's avatar

When you click on the article, add "/comments" to the URL and then press enter. Voila.

Steve Sailer's avatar

Substack should be able to have somebody vibe code options like this up in no time flat.

Ralph L's avatar

The comments at Jack Cashill's substack aren't always in chronological order, so it's even worse. I'm not talking about replies. Perhaps because I'm not a paid subscriber?

Christopher B's avatar

Substack has three comment sort options - newest first, oldest first, and 'top' which is sort of a list with comments getting the most likes and replies first. It appears that authors have some control over the default comment sorting. iSteve appears to have selected Oldest First (chronological order) but it appears to me that the Substack default is 'Top' sorting. If you look off to the right of the ## Comments heading there should be a button that will allow you to sort by any of the three options, though the selection is not 'sticky' nor does it carry over from author to author.

Steve Sailer's avatar

What should I make the default?

Christopher B's avatar

I'm good with either Newest or Oldest. I detest the 'most popular' selection because you either have to resort or scroll to find a new comment.

I just kinda assumed you had selected Oldest because yours is the only Substack I visit that always has comments sorted chronologically.

Mike Conrad's avatar

TOP, of course.. if you trust your subscribers.

S. MacPavel's avatar

I honestly feel bad for this guy. He never should have been a professor and was a total fraud, I don't disagree there. But I don't know that he's intelligent enough to know that he did something wrong. Everyone who should have known better just fed his lies back to him. The whole thing feels like a cruel joke by the institutions, like Carrie getting voted prom queen only to get blood poured on her.

Nicolas Hughes's avatar

I started to feel sorry for him then all the stuff came out about him setting the police on anyone investigating his lies, setting libel lawyers on them too

Then I decided he's far too nasty and calculating to feel sorry for. He comes across as manipulative in all the worst ways.

John McMillian's avatar

There is something genuinely wrong with him. The focus now should be on Cambridge and Simon & Schuster, who say they’re still planning to publish his book (but probably aren’t). (PS I’ll bet anyone here $10 they don’t.)

Mike Conrad's avatar

God, I love that Carrie reference, and I didn't even see the movie (or read the book).

Timothy Black's avatar

Yes, just this. Slyly fooling your peers with plagiarism is disgusting, but a purely fabulist CV ("30 marathons in 35 days") is instead a sign of mental illness or anyway some kind of diminished moral competence. Maybe I'm cutting him too much slack, but a plausible summary is: British university system exploits autistic man to meet racial quota goals.

By the bye, we soon won't have such cases to kick around: it is already quite easy to launder plagiarism thru LLMs, so exact text matches will no longer be available for comparison or for evidence. Future cases will always be deniable.

Timothy Black's avatar

Also, isn't his crime a little like cheating in professional wrestling? The whole field is fake. Does anyone think the Zwozdiak-Myers paper he plagiarized is important scholarly work?

Mike Conrad's avatar

QUOTE "a sign of mental illness or anyway some kind of diminished moral competence"

Could anyone else hear this coming? The "mental health" excuse has taken our society by storm. It covers a multitude of sins, is almost impossible to refute, and in recent cases has been invoked for mothers strangling their babies, PoC mass shootings, etc etc. Expect more.

Timothy Black's avatar

I agree in the main, but in this case.... Let me put it this way: I don't get the mentally ill vibe from such other plagiarists as Claudine Gay or Bill Ackman's wife.

Nameless For Now's avatar

Thoughts on George Santos?

Nameless For Now's avatar

Did George Santos have a mental condition and/or autism?

Bob Thebuilder's avatar

Sorry, I can't feel empathy for a plagiarist/fabulist who has stolen the opportunity for a significant honor from someone deserving of it such as Mr. Cofnas.

Jerome's avatar

When he apologizes, admits he's basically a useless moron, and gives the money back, then I'll feel sorry for him.

KM's avatar

I feel kind of bad for him. The plagiarism is wrong, of course, but there's probably a lot more of it going on in academia than people realize. At first I thought, "Here's some guy who exaggerated a little bit." Maybe he didn't run as much or raise as much money as he claimed. But then I started seeing the stuff about Seven Up and the pig head and clearly the dude is not right in the head.

But what truly pisses me off is Simon Baron-Cohen doubling down on defending him even after the evidence of plagiarism was completely obvious. And what pisses me off are all of the people who handed him degrees and jobs. Which of his academic qualifications did he actually deserve? How many better-qualified people were passed over for jobs so that employers could show off their trophy DEI hire Jason Arday? The system that allows Arday to get to the top is the real source of embarrassment here.

Anonymous Dude's avatar

"Booyakasha! I is here to talk to everyone about Professor Arday's plagarism. How did he get the plague? Was it by sleeping with the wrong hiney and yo, was she fit? 'Cause if it was me Julie, I totally would. Respek!"

Oh, that's the other Baron-Cohen.

Seriously, I think the point is exactly that, yes, Arday came to represent the academy's commitment to diversity which is now under attack by the likes of Trump. So it was kind of a 'are you on our side or against us' moment for the university. The people who would have stood on meritocracy are long gone.

Nameless For Now's avatar

This is the UK, so swap Trump for Farage, Lowe, or both.

Soothsayer's avatar

Someone pressured him to resign. They still have some dignity somewhere.

Philip Neal's avatar

I feel a bit guilty now that he has gone, and I see that the Jolly Heretic, not normally the charitable type, feels the same way. It is sort of like the way we all laughed at Jade Goody.

The real story now is why Cambridge University, and Simon Baron-Cohen in particular, allowed a delusive fantasist to devalue the title of professor at a great university. They should not be allowed to wave it all aside as yesterday's news.

William M Briggs's avatar

Fair's fair. He earned it.

programmabilities's avatar

Now we learn that Scotland Yard attempted to silence Nathan Cofnas who tried to expose Arday's claims. In fact, they spent months investigating Cofnas.

Kathleen Lowrey's avatar

is that who the paywalled Telegraph article was about? It said "a journalist": they meant Cofnas? What a nightmare either way.

Mike Conrad's avatar

Good God, is that true? Smdh... this sort of insanity in our institutions is how and why we get the DJT sort of insanity as a response. Why oh why are we in this handbasket?

Christopher B's avatar

I don't think it was Cofnas, though maybe he was also. The report I saw was about Jack Grove, a reporter for Times Higher Education.

https://instapundit.com/814672/

The Last Real Calvinist's avatar

You're right; it was Grove, not Coftas. There have been several nasty white men investigating Arday's ludicrous record over the past few years.

You can read Grove's own account of his persecution (and I'm not trying to be facetious in using that word) here: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/i-was-reported-police-over-arday-case-i-was-just-doing-my-job

Mike Conrad's avatar

A catch-22. No one besides white males would ever even want to dig even slightly below the surface in search of the truth of the matter. But since it's white males we automatically know their motives are fascistic.

AnotherDad's avatar

> Cambridge previously said Prof Arday was the victim of a “vile campaign to undermine his credibility”, but had faced a staff revolt over its refusal to re-examine his academic credentials. … <

"Cambridge" -- presumably a bunch of girls and some pompous virtue signaling guys in the administration

"staff revolt" -- mainly a bunch of white guy profs who don't like seeing Cambridge--and by extension, their academic status/respect--turned into a joke by the woke

~~

Arday is just a joke. And his hiring a symptom of the deep rot in the West. But his--impending after investigation--firing is a reminder, that our decline is not irreversible.

If the British people would recover enough self-respect to crawl out from the toxic cesspit of minoritarianism ... they actually could recover their nation! One election under the Westminster system and they could have an immediate end to immigration, send all the illegals back, start kicking out all undesirable (most) immigrants and even start repatriating foreign ethnic groups who do not belong (ex. Pakis).

The West is dying only through the lack of will. Recover the will and we *can* fix our problems.

We really don't have to live like this.

Al DuClur's avatar

If his lived experience tells him he wrote a book or was a visiting professor, who are we pale white people to tell him those aren't true.