Merged Arday life and death

[Rolfe]

This seems somewhat relevant.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10/09/you-cant-challenge-reform-spivvery-celebrating-archer/

I managed to read the article from the link in this tweet, but now I can't get past the paywall.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2108583329981202456

The part I was going to quote was about Archer blagging his way into Oxford (as a student) with only three O levels. Where he began charity fundraising, boasting of huge commissions from Oxfam (who don't pay commission) to explain his lavish lifestyle.

It appears that Archer was enriching himself from his charitable efforts (which there seems to be no suggestion that Arday did) and yet he managed to sail through everything, including a prison sentence for perjury.

 

[smartcooky]

But my point was merely that just because someone wears closed can headphones, it doesn't mean they're autistic. Self-diagnosed or not. I imagine even most neurotypical people would have trouble concentrating in a 92dB office.

I mean, as the meme goes: I wear sound-cancelling headphones. And I'm autistic. But it's not because I wear those headphones

I wear closed can headphones to listen to music because I can't stand wearing those awful bloody earbuds..they irritate the hell out of the outer part of my ear canal.

 

[Emily's Cat]

I wear closed can headphones to listen to music because I can't stand wearing those awful bloody earbuds..they irritate the hell out of the outer part of my ear canal.

I have a very small head (comes with being very short), and most headphones aren't small enough to fit properly. The only ones that fit are made for children, and those make the cartilage in my ears hurt. So I only wear earbuds.

But only the kind with the nice soft silicone bits. The hard kind like Apple makes suck-diddly-uck.

 

[Rolfe]

What seems to me to be so desperately sad about this is that the world has essentially forgotten about Jason Arday. As far as I can make out he killed himself out of embarrassment about being found out. But he could have overcome this and rebuilt his life. In a year or so it's likely few people will even recognise his name. I think he had never faced a serious challenge before, and to him it took on the semblance of the end of the world.

And no, I don't think the press coverage was excessive. The slant of most of it wasn't "look what a lying faker Jason Arday is," but rather, "what is wrong in Cambridge university that they could appoint someone so self-evidently unqualified to a senior professorial chair." A question which still hangs unanswered.

 

[theprestige]

What seems to me to be so desperately sad about this is that the world has essentially forgotten about Jason Arday. As far as I can make out he killed himself out of embarrassment about being found out. But he could have overcome this and rebuilt his life. In a year or so it's likely few people will even recognise his name. I think he had never faced a serious challenge before, and to him it took on the semblance of the end of the world.

And no, I don't think the press coverage was excessive. The slant of most of it wasn't "look what a lying faker Jason Arday is," but rather, "what is wrong in Cambridge university that they could appoint someone so self-evidently unqualified to a senior professorial chair." A question which still hangs unanswered.

It's a mixed bag of emotions for me, that's sure.

On the one hand, swift oblivion is poetic justice for a fabulist, which I can appreciate.

On the other hand, forgetting Arday means forgetting Cambridge, and what Cambridge did. It means forgetting to hold Cambridge's feet to the fire. Jason Arday was a human being who made some bad choices, but was also exploited and discarded by a corrupt system.

I have little objection to putting Jason Arday to rest, and may he rest in peace (if not, perhaps, in blessed memory). But Cambridge should be kept on the hot seat a while longer. They won't be, but they should.

 

[Ziggurat]

I have little objection to putting Jason Arday to rest, and may he rest in peace (if not, perhaps, in blessed memory). But Cambridge should be kept on the hot seat a while longer. They won't be, but they should.

The students who paid tuition for his garbage classes will never get justice.

 

[theprestige]

"Lies to children" was supposed to be about how sometimes, for six year olds, you have to oversimplify a new concept when you first introduce it to them.

It was never supposed to be about sitting nineteen college kids down in front of Jason Arday and telling them they're receiving higher education.

 

[Matthew Best]

As far as I can make out he killed himself out of embarrassment about being found out. But he could have overcome this and rebuilt his life.

Like Jeffrey Archer.

 

[theprestige]

Or Ollie North. Though, to be fair, I'm pretty sure the people who set North up as their scapegoat actually made sure he was taken care of, and given more opportunities, in exchange for his unwavering loyalty in taking the fall for them. I doubt Cambridge sent a James Baker or a Don Regan to take Arday aside and whisper sweet nothings in his ear about how they'd make him whole again as long as he stayed the course.

I doubt Hilary Cremin understands that kind of loyalty or people-management.

But did you know the Cambridge University Education Department has a Mental Wellbeing Pillar Manager? Hilary Cremin is being replaced as department head, almost certainly because of the publicity she received as part of the Arday Affair. Maybe Sui-Mee Chan should follow her out the door. I wonder if it even occurred to her to reach out to her colleague about his troubles. Even though her focus is "[promoting] positive mental health outcomes for children and young people in a digital world."

She's held a doctorate in social psychology for twenty years now. Has she done much at all to advance the state of the art? Anything besides get herself a comfy sinecure at a non-profit seemingly precision-engineered to help people like Arday, but clearly didn't? You'd think a doctor of social psychology with twenty post-doc years of work and research in the field would have seen this tragedy coming a mile away, and positioned the department to handle it with grace and aplomb.

 

[Rolfe]

Like Jeffrey Archer.

I don't imagine that's the only way.