I didn’t say anything about the Arday affair because (a) I’m small potatoes, (b) I had nothing original to add to what was already being said everywhere, and (c) even as an unimportant observer, I worried that anything I wrote would feed a hostile, mob-like atmosphere that could end in tragedy. And now it has.
I had apprehensions that something like this could happen, but what good would it have done to voice them? And now that it has happened, I’m sorry I stayed silent. So here is what I would have said.
Cambridge should never have hired him. But he was a human being, and he was being publicly humiliated. This was wrong. And while Nathan Cofnas is not responsible for what ultimately happened, I do think he could have handled his role in this more carefully.
Here’s a summary of the events.
Jason Arday was hired by Cambridge in March 2023.
By mid‑2025, at least one Cambridge academic had begun quietly warning colleagues that parts of Arday’s PhD thesis and later papers looked plagiarized. These concerns stayed internal and undocumented. Then on July 29, 2026, Nathan Cofnas published a Substack post laying out detailed plagiarism allegations with side‑by‑side comparisons. That was the moment the issue escaped Cambridge’s internal bubble and became visible to the outside world.
Within forty‑eight hours, on July 31, 2026, Fox News ran a story amplifying Cofnas’s claims to a national audience. British newspapers followed immediately: The Times published its own investigation on August 1, and The Telegraph added further findings on August 2. Under this combined pressure, Cambridge opened a formal inquiry during the first week of August. Arday resigned on August 5, 2026.
In the meantime, Cofnas took victory laps as the man who exposed Arday. He appeared on a range of culture‑war commentary venues and YouTube channels, including the odious Megyn Kelly. These are platforms that reward escalation and conflict. (Confession: although I agree with most of what they say, I don’t listen to them because I find them boring, crude, and repetitive.)
None of this was necessary; the story already had momentum. If Cofnas had been acting in good faith, he would have published the evidence and then stepped back. Instead, he chose to become a public protagonist in the scandal, amplifying the humiliation of a man already under institutional investigation. He became part of the story, and now he is the story. This was his choice.
David Starkey suggested that Cofnas’s crusade carried a note of revenge, given how poorly Cambridge had treated him. Cofnas laughed this off. Of all the commentators, only Edward “Jolly Heretic” Dutton expressed any humane concern for Arday — ironic, given Dutton’s own views on racial differences.
Today, August 14, 2026, Arday was found dead, turning an academic scandal into a tragedy.
Overwhelmingly, the onus is on Cambridge. They hired a man who was manifestly unfit. When inklings of plagiarism surfaced last year, they should have quietly eased him out. They could have found a less prestigious, low‑pressure position for him somewhere in the British equivalent of a community college, and the matter would have ended there.
DEI is a destructive ideology. In this case, it literally killed its purported beneficiary. I am beyond disgusted.
He lied repeatedly. He was either mentallly ill or a grifter or some combination. This is on Cambridge, not Coftas. Yes, he was a human being, but he used his lies to make money and gain prestige. He put himself in this position. He sought fame and money. No one went after him in seclusion. He had a book coming out! He was on TV. Come on. He lied and cheated and didn't do the job he was paid for. He went after journalists and academics with lawyers and police. He was either a very bad man or a totally crazy one. Either way, that is not on any of us or the people who unmasked him. This self flagellation is depressing and wrong. What should we have done? Apologize for him? Cover for him? Sweep it under the rug? He never admitted to any of it. He never apologized. If he was that mentally ill, why didn't his family or Cambridge help him? Because they were still pretending. This should be a lesson, but I worry it won't be.
I don’t necessarily disagree with your assessment of the press tour that Cofnas launched but the minute I read the first story about Jason Arday, it was clear to me he had serious mental health issues. The likelihood that the outcome for him would be what has transpired was obvious. Is it anyone’s fault? He had many enablers but in the end, someone who lived a false and magical life story was never going to be able to survive being exposed. It’s too bad but totally expected. And from the reactions I’ve read, his family is still in denial.