Merged Arday life and death

[Emily's Cat]

I am a firm believer in " able to do the job".

Kind of depends on the job, though, doesn't it? Able to do the job is fine for unskilled labor. For something like plumbing or electricity, I'm more inclined to want able to do the job very well. If we're talking about open heart surgery, I lean a lot more toward one of the best in the area at the job.

 

[smartcooky]

Also, conflating the hiring of a token minority person (apparently without even bothering to properly vet them) and DEI practices is incredibly dishonest (as I'm sure they know). One is an empty PR gesture, the other is an effort to actually increase diversity in workplaces and in positions of power. But when's the usual suspects cared about what words mean .

eta to elaborate

If you are going claim that Arday was not a DEI hire then you are either being dishonest or you are living in a fantasyland, completely out of touch with the reality of the ultra-progressive mindset that prevails at most modern universities.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Please stop promulgating incorrect information about me.


BTW you need to reevaluate your belief that your degree 'a hard science' is better or harder than what you refer to as 'soft'. Pure mathematicians will argue that this is far more difficult than applied mathematics. History and English are not at all 'easy' subjects. The sheer volume of texts an English student has to get through is staggering, from Beowulf through Chaucer, Shakespeare and not to mention a whole bunch of foreign language stuff. History requires incredible analytical and essay writing skills. Lets not even 'go there' for Philosophy which needs tremendous understanding of abstract ideas and concepts. Yes, your subject is categorised as a' hard science' being as it does based on physical measurable phenomena and needs good spatial skills. It doesn't follow it is 'hard' as in difficult, although it might well be for those without the necessary spatial skills.

Arday was a Sociology professor, specialising in mentoring in trainee PE teachers. Yes, some believe Sociology is a 'Micky Mouse' subject but hey, Arday wasn't claiming to be an airline pilot or a brain surgeon.

With room for nuance, the general difference between a hard science and a soft science is that in a hard science you can be concretely, unquestionably, unequivocally wrong. There's no interpretation or different perspective that can be allowed in the question of whether or not that airframe will withstand the specified force - it either will or it won't.

Noting that something is a hard science doesn't mean the content is harder. It means it's inflexible and unbending. Your math either maths or it fails completely. Your perspective on the impact of thai bodhisattva sculpture on the other hand, can't really be wrong, it can only be uncompelling or unconvincing.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Thanks for acknowledging you are prejudiced. Please reevaluate whether this is a personality trait worth cultivating or curtailing. Making a blanket statement that Sociology is a worthless degree tells us more about you than about Sociology as a subject, which forms the bedrock of politics, social relations and economics. Jason Ardy was a Professor of Sociology at Cambridge. You were not. Cry harder.

"Mickey Mouse" doesn't mean worthless. It means easy to complete and get a degree in, less rigorous in the demand for factuality, reproducibility, and objective fact.

 

[Emily's Cat]

What if all three are equally knowledgeable and good candidates, but one of them has had to overcome more adversity to reach that position?

Having gone through interview rounds where there were several candidates of roughly equal qualifications and capability... it ended up coming down to which personality was likely to be the best and most productive fit for the team.

The troubles they faced to get there were of no import to me as the hiring agent. "Can they do the job?" and "will they work well with the rest of the team and produce synergy" were the ones that actually mattered.

You know, if those are your focus, you'll probably end up with a diverse team anyway. Because that's what happens when you give no ◊◊◊◊◊ about a person's skin color or sex and only care about their capability and character.

 

[angrysoba]

With room for nuance, the general difference between a hard science and a soft science is that in a hard science you can be concretely, unquestionably, unequivocally wrong. There's no interpretation or different perspective that can be allowed in the question of whether or not that airframe will withstand the specified force - it either will or it won't.

Noting that something is a hard science doesn't mean the content is harder. It means it's inflexible and unbending. Your math either maths or it fails completely. Your perspective on the impact of thai bodhisattva sculpture on the other hand, can't really be wrong, it can only be uncompelling or unconvincing.

You can also be unequivocally and unquestionably wrong in history, philosophy, languages and archeology.

Who shot JFK? Ghengis Khan!

Is affirming the consequent a valid argument? No!

Did the Ancient Greeks speak Japanese?

Was Gobleki Tepe built by aliens?

 

[Emily's Cat]

That does not mean the point I make about the right to silence is invalid.

I feel a bit like Inigo Montoya here.

Arday had a right to silence, and at no point was that right violated. He was never compelled to respond.

But Arday's right to silence does not imply that others must therefore be silent as well. Others still have the right to ask.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Ok so when the Anglo-Saxon workmate comes in on Monday and claims they scored six goals for Crystal Palace over the weekend they should be sacked and have their face plastered all over the press? Or does what they do in their spare time have no effect on their ability to perform heart surgery..?

IMNTK

Aside: I have no idea what "IMNTK" is supposed to mean. I googled it and it gave me stuff that was obviously not relevant. So gemini suggested that I add more context. So I provided the entire quote and asked what IMNTK meant in that context.

Gemini suggested it was a type of IMWTK, which would be "inquiring minds want to know". That sounds plausible. But the explanation for why it was mistyped is an entertaining bit of hallucination:

Why the Letters Swapped
On a standard QWERTY keyboard, the letter N is located directly below the letter H, which sits right next to the letter G. When typing quickly, it is very common to miss the W and hit an N instead, turning IMWTK into IMNTK.

I'll now allow a brief intermission while you all look at your keyboards and laugh at how being below the H results in someone aiming for W and hitting N by accident.

I'm more inclined to think it was intended as "inquiring minds need to know", which is merely a misquote. Although it should really be EMWTK anyway.

 

[Emily's Cat]

she and a couple of other berks published an autoethnographic "study" (autoethnographic=the only sample is oneself)

The core concept of autoethnography is mind-boggling to me as anything that should be taken seriously in academia... but that kind of thing has become more and more common over the last few years.

I mean... academics have always been teased as navel-gazers, but that's a whole new level.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Race is not a thing in the UK unlike America.

I have it from several UK friends that people of pakistani origin might disagree with you on this.

 

[Emily's Cat]

For goodness sake, Arday's specialised interest was Physical Education. He came from an impoverished part of London, of Ghanaian heritage and only became academically interested at age 18, when he first learned how to read, having only been verbal for a mere 7 years. He DID do enormous amounts of running and lots of running for charity. He WAS an amateur footballer who DID play in a recognised league. So the claims are he exaggerated his mileage. Who knows whether that was just rounding up to the nearest hundred, an intent to impress or a deliberate intent to deceive. I very much doubt it was the latter as he didn't pocket any financial proceeds, unlike Captain Tom's daughter and her husband, and all they got was a rap on the knuckles by the Charity Commission and a ban.

FTFY

 

[Emily's Cat]

I dare say Cambridge et al saw Arday as an under-represented demographic so allowed for his lack of a conventional CV. That doesn't mean he didn't get in on (perceived) merit. You'll find it is your 'glowing' references that get you in. In the UK it really is a case of not what you know but who you know.

Vixen, why are you so determined to defend Arday? I'm not intending this as antagonistic, I genuinely don't understand why you're so invested in defending the honor of this person.

 

[angrysoba]

Of course race is a thing in the UK. We had this thing called the British Empire where race definitely had more than a walk-on role. It was quite famous at the time. And we used to see spectacles such as John Barnes running onto the pitch to having the crowd of his own team throwing bananas at him. That was related to race! Obviously!

 

[Emily's Cat]

I've been thinking about all this "racism" angle. People in England are simply not as racist as Arday was making them out to be.

For consideration... people in the US are simply not as racist as they are made out to be either. Genuinely, the vast majority of us do not care what color a person's skin is. Some few do, as I'm sure is the case in England as well. But for the overwhelming majority of americans, we just don't care.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Black people who are well integrated into English society, who are well-spoken and polite, who are holding down good jobs? These people may expect to be attacked with knives simply for the colour of their skin? Really?

Ahh... assimilation, now, that's a rather different topic isn't it? Because that's not about skin color, that's about culture and shared values.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Again you entirely fail to understand the timeline. There was no public scrutiny on him when he reported the retired academic to the police for a couple of polite emails. When the THE was preparing its article about him there was no public scrutiny on him. He set Carter Ruck on them, got the story pulled, and reported the journalist to the police. He was not having a nervous breakdown then. He was a fraudster using every heavy-handed means at his disposal to prevent the story of his fraudulent activities becoming a matter of public scrutiny.

And he wasn't autistic either.

Nor was he a private individual. He positively basked in the extensive, adulatory coverage he got as the black Wunderkind professor, editing the Today programme and so on. The revisionism surrounding all this is ridiculous.

Watching this unfold has been... disheartening. I've grown a bit inured to historical revisionism... but seeing it happen in real time, about current events, as the information unfolds is just depressing.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Claims Karen, Julia, Nathan and Allison in their vile hack opinion pieces. Even the GUARDIAN joining in with ludicrous speculation as to whether Arday was ever heard speaking as a child and how the "Butcher says, no", re an alleged pig's head, as though it had to be one in town.

Read what Will Self has to say, not a bunch of envious hacks.

Are you... are you now taking the position that a pig's head actually did show up?

I'm sorry, Vixen, but are you sober?

 

[d4m10n]

When the THE was preparing its article about him there was no public scrutiny on him.

Are you creating a separate category for press scrutiny?

 

[Emily's Cat]

His behaviour was tantamount to blackmail and harassment.

With the caveat that I haven't followed every single in and out of this story... I think I disagree with you.

I would say that Cofnas's character is vile and reprehensible... but I don't see that their behavior constitutes blackmail or harassment.

 

[Emily's Cat]

I started off by suggesting a potential cause was the pile on. I then argued that when he asked not to be contacted, that is a right and it should have been respected by all, especially since he went to the police and a lawyers, right from the start.

Alright, clue me in.

So far as I can tell, Arday asked TWO people not to contact them again. And neither of those two people did so.

Is it actually the case that a person can go to the police and demand that NOBODY AT ALL is allowed to contact them? That seems crazy to me.