Merged Arday life and death

[SpuriusMaximus]

If we extend our grace to the utmost and assume embellishment rather than outright fabrication... <snip>

To be honest that seems to me like an academic distinction (pun intended.) If I ran 2 miles around the school in 9th grade (I came last, btw, I was VERY fast in a sprint, but sucked at endurance, and stupidly enough I actually tried to sprint it) and embellished that into running a marathon, THAT'S A LIE. If I embellished my benign lipoma surgery to being a brain surgery case, THAT'S A LIE. If I embellished my playing basketball in the school PE class into me being even the high school basketball superstar athlete, THAT'S A LIE. If I embellished my enlisted NCO army career into me being some kind of colonel, THAT'S A LIE. Etc.

Can it be based on some minor thing that actually happened? I mean, sure. I can't disprove it.

But then people base their lies on all sorts of things, including stuff they've seen in a movie or a game or just dreamed. My claiming I'm the Cyberdyne prototype and waiting for someone to finally build a terminator is based just on movies. (Or is it?) So is my appealing to the FSM or Lucifer Morningstar in posts. My claiming to like big anime boobs is a straight up lie to annoy YOU specifically. (Sorry) They don't actually do ANYTHING for me. I very much prefer 3D women. (Damn, I blew my cover) Etc.

Does it actually matter if they're based on anything real, or just my bored datacentre brain? (Like, F me, there aren't nearly enough new posts a day to keep me interested )

 

[Rolfe]

Oh it wasn't "idle spite". Cofnas has long promoted nasty pseudoscientific drivel regarding differences between Jews/non-Jews and blacks/whites. Interestingly his own qualifications are now subject to serious queries.....

A large number of his soon to be former colleagues at the University of Ghent had written to the university authorities about his lack of relevant qualifications or expertise.

Nobody would have guessed that employing a nazi would mean that he was completely unqualified. Has never happened before [/s]

So what?

 

[catsmate]

So what?

Ah, so bias is irrelevant if it's against someone you disagree with?

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Ah, so bias is irrelevant if it's against someone you disagree with?

No, in logic an ad-hominem is always irrelevant. No exception. Ever.

 

[theprestige]

The thesis picked apart by Cofnas out of idle spite against one successful individual

Arday wasn't actually successful, though. That's kind of the whole point.

 

[Rolfe]

Ah, so bias is irrelevant if it's against someone you disagree with?

Shooting the messenger is never a good look, even if you don't like the messenger.

 

[Rolfe]

Some one has archived all four of the Atlantic articles about Arday. I think they're admirably even-handed.

Jason Arday's Fairy Tale Is Over - The Atlantic

archived 16 Aug 2026 02:10:22 UTC

archive.ph

This goes into some detail about the book and how it differs from what Arday has claimed happened to him and from the original book proposal. A single one of these events would be life-defining for any individual, including the ones he didn't put into the book. That they all happened to one person is literally incredible. That that person, despite repeated medical setbacks that would have cost even a normal person years of learning an study time, made it to a professorial chair before he was forty, well, maybe in the works of the Brothers Grimm.

The Truths That Failed Jason Arday - The Atlantic

archived 24 Aug 2026 14:29:03 UTC

archive.ph

Jason Arday’s Final Self-Delusion - The Atlantic

archived 19 Aug 2026 20:58:11 UTC

archive.ph

The Jason Arday Truthers - The Atlantic

archived 27 Aug 2026 07:26:51 UTC

archive.ph

 

[theprestige]

Shooting the messenger is never a good look, even if you don't like the messenger.

Even if the messenger is a colossal dickbag.

 

[theprestige]

Some one has archived all four of the Atlantic articles about Arday. I think they're admirably even-handed.

Jason Arday's Fairy Tale Is Over - The Atlantic

archived 16 Aug 2026 02:10:22 UTC

archive.ph

View attachment 75033

This goes into some detail about the book and how it differs from what Arday has claimed happened to him and from the original book proposal. A single one of these events would be life-defining for any individual, including the ones he didn't put into the book. That they all happened to one person is literally incredible. That that person, despite repeated medical setbacks that would have cost even a normal person years of learning an study time, made it to a professorial chair before he was forty, well, maybe in the works of the Brothers Grimm.

The Truths That Failed Jason Arday - The Atlantic

archived 24 Aug 2026 14:29:03 UTC

archive.ph

View attachment 75035

Jason Arday’s Final Self-Delusion - The Atlantic

archived 19 Aug 2026 20:58:11 UTC

archive.ph

View attachment 75036

The Jason Arday Truthers - The Atlantic

archived 27 Aug 2026 07:26:51 UTC

archive.ph

View attachment 75037

"The press's obsession was in proportion with the outlandishness of the lies told by Arday".

Sounds about right to me.

 

[ahhell]

There's the thing about this story and Cofnas, there were other more reputable sources that were going to publish this story, but they were threatened with a lawsuit, so didn't. If responsible folks won't deal with a thing, less responsible ones will and will generally do so less responsibly.

ETA: You can't even blame him for the pile on, all he did was publish a true story on the internet. The responsible media then piled on.

 

[theprestige]

The more polarized politics gets, the more likely the opposition is going to tell you uncomfortable truths that your own faction would rather keep hidden for political reasons.

If you don't want to hear about Perfidious Oxbridge from the likes of Cofnas, then you're going to have to admit the perfidy yourself, and do something about it before Cofnas arrives.

But this can be hard to do, because Oxbridge is your political ally, and you don't want to undermine them, or reveal any truth that gives the opposition grounds to criticize your policy proposals.

If the people who are so righteously committed to DEI had watchdogged their own, and cracked down on Oxbridge's unhinged race-based hiring practices before they got so out of hand, Cofnas would never have had a story, and Arday would probably still be alive. He'd probably be a Sunday League football coach, having found academia to be a mutually-agreed dead end. But who's to say he wouldn't have been happier, and more well-adjusted, in that life?

 

[d4m10n]

A large number of his soon to be former colleagues at the University of Ghent had written to the university authorities about his lack of relevant qualifications or expertise.

What does that tells us about Arday's qualifications or expertise, if anything?

Would they somehow become more impressive if it turns out Cofnas is similarly poorly qualified for his own role?

 

[theprestige]

Would they somehow become more impressive if it turns out Cofnas is similarly poorly qualified for his own role?

Ironically, it seems Cofnas was better at original research and written communication. So he might well have been more qualified than Arday even if he was poorly qualified for his own role.

 

[d4m10n]

Even if Cofnas turns out to have plagiarized in order to obtain his academic credentials and fabulated various heart-warming stories of overcoming adversity in his bio, that wouldn't somehow make Arday innocent of such things.

 

[Emily's Cat]

To be honest that seems to me like an academic distinction (pun intended.) If I ran 2 miles around the school in 9th grade (I came last, btw, I was VERY fast in a sprint, but sucked at endurance, and stupidly enough I actually tried to sprint it) and embellished that into running a marathon, THAT'S A LIE. If I embellished my benign lipoma surgery to being a brain surgery case, THAT'S A LIE. If I embellished my playing basketball in the school PE class into me being even the high school basketball superstar athlete, THAT'S A LIE. If I embellished my enlisted NCO army career into me being some kind of colonel, THAT'S A LIE. Etc.

Can it be based on some minor thing that actually happened? I mean, sure. I can't disprove it.

But then people base their lies on all sorts of things, including stuff they've seen in a movie or a game or just dreamed. My claiming I'm the Cyberdyne prototype and waiting for someone to finally build a terminator is based just on movies. (Or is it?) So is my appealing to the FSM or Lucifer Morningstar in posts. My claiming to like big anime boobs is a straight up lie to annoy YOU specifically. (Sorry) They don't actually do ANYTHING for me. I very much prefer 3D women. (Damn, I blew my cover) Etc.

Does it actually matter if they're based on anything real, or just my bored datacentre brain? (Like, F me, there aren't nearly enough new posts a day to keep me interested )

You're not wrong. I'm mostly tossing in that there's a fairly well established acceptance of embellishment in story-telling, where some degree of exaggeration for effect isn't necessarily viewed as an outright lie. Telling a good story often means not being 100% absolutely accurate about it. But it always has the risk of going too far, even in normal everyday retellings.

The point was to try to ferret out what a reasonable "real life" event might have been, that when embellished beyond the socially acceptable range becomes absurd. It was a thought exercise.

 

[Emily's Cat]

Ah, so bias is irrelevant if it's against someone you disagree with?

Bias is irrelevant when we're talking about verifiable facts. Even the most biased person on the planet can be right. Heck, even you're right sometimes

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

You're not wrong. I'm mostly tossing in that there's a fairly well established acceptance of embellishment in story-telling, where some degree of exaggeration for effect isn't necessarily viewed as an outright lie. Telling a good story often means not being 100% absolutely accurate about it. But it always has the risk of going too far, even in normal everyday retellings.

Yes, but if it goes way past that point, isn't it just a lie either way?

 

[Vixen]

Ahh the joys of AI. Take it for what it is and isn't.

So yeah, google's AI says it's technically possible for a single person to have GCD, autism, selective mutism, dyslexia, and epilepsy all at once (( suspect that's where you got that particular list anyway, AI is good for that). But even AI says that being nonverbal to age 11 and illiterate until 18 makes it extremely implausible that a person with such significant cognitive developmental issues would make a complete turnaround from age 18 and get a doctorate, a prestigious professorship, and publish complex peer-reviewed papers.

AI even knew who we are talking about.

Any lay person understands that epilepsy, 'learning difficulty', being developmentally behind in reading and writing - especially if shamed in class - and Aspergers (now ASD) often cluster together in children with one or more of these conditions I see nothing 'fabulist' here at all. If Arday was written off at school then like a very large - surprising - number of adults, he never picked up a book again...until he met his mentor.

 

[Vixen]

Oh it wasn't "idle spite". Cofnas has long promoted nasty pseudoscientific drivel regarding differences between Jews/non-Jews and blacks/whites. Interestingly his own qualifications are now subject to serious queries.....

I think I am going to have to lie in a darkened room: for once I agree with you...

 

[Vixen]

A large number of his soon to be former colleagues at the University of Ghent had written to the university authorities about his lack of relevant qualifications or expertise.

Nobody would have guessed that employing a nazi would mean that he was completely unqualified. Has never happened before [/s]

Cofnas has never studied Psychology nor researched intelligence. According to his critics, his views are secondhand.