#justsaying #opinion
Someone put this on another poem I wrote about the tragic death of Dr. Jason Arday. I felt incensed enough to respond.
From Steven Pinker, Profesor at Harvard University, and Author.
The Jason Arday scandal/fiasco/tragedy is a prime example of "pluralistic ignorance." No sapient being could believe his ziggurat of whoppers, but each may have privately thought that everyone else believed them. This happens when the expression of an idea is stigmatized or punished, as obviously happened here: anyone expressing common-sense incredulity was tarred as a racist, ableist, and abettor of suicide (not to mention threatened by a barracuda law firm and questioned by the police). For more on pluralistic ignorance and other extraordinary popular delusions, see When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.
MY RESPONSE
Steven Pinker has some heavily criticised views on Autism likening Autistic people to 'robots and chimpanzees', and as Dr Jason Arday was Autistic this has to be taken into account when assessing his behaviour. Some autistic people who’ve faced years of criticism or misunderstanding may develop a protective, slightly inflated presentation of themselves — not as a trait of autism but as a response to social experiences.
I have personal experience of Autism in my immediate family and can assure you that Pinker's comments about Autism are very offensive to the Neurodivergent community and to many of us who identify as neurotypical.
Dr. Arday's friends are claiming racism is at the heart of the plagiarism claims. For example, Liverpool John Moores University, who issued Dr. Arday's Ph.D., investigated the claims and let the Phd., stand, so why did Cambridge University open another investigation therefore giving credulity to the already resolved plagiarism claims?
Steven Pinker is a professor at Harvard University where Claudine Gay served as the 30th president of Harvard taking office on July 1, 2023. She made history as the first Black president and the second woman to lead the institution. Her tenure ended on January 3, 2024, following intense scrutiny over congressional testimony regarding antisemitism on campus and subsequent allegations of plagiarism. There are suggestions that the British media took this as their 'play book' to hound Jason Arday out of his position.
Plagiarism is notoriously difficult to prove or disprove. Dr. Arday's friends are calling out the 'feeding frenzy' on both social and mainstream media for the persecution of Jason Arday. This persecution has been going on for three years. At one time, there were 188 articles in circulation. Where was the duty of care of the media and Cambridge University for a man irrespective of his colour who was Autistic and therefore 25% more at risk of suicide than the general population?
When Rachel Reeves was accused of plagiarism in 2023 there was barely a ripple in the media.
Reeves acknowledged that she "should have done better" and admitted to making inadvertent mistakes, stating that the errors would be fixed in future reprints of the book. Her publisher, Basic Books, also noted that factual sentences should have been better rewritten and referenced. The end of the story. It is no wonder Dr.Arday's friends are calling out the racism of the mainstream media
and academia.
I live in Oldham, in the northwest of the UK, where not that many years ago we had race riots. Unfortunately, racism in all its invidious forms is still thriving in the UK and can only get worse with the rise of Nigel Farage and Reform.
Perhaps it would do us all good to remember we all belong to one tribe called 'Humankind.' Please let us exercise humanity towards each other and treat everyone with kindness. Let us allow his family and friends time to grieve his loss.
©✍️CarolynCrossley
Dr. Jason Arday – Rest in Peace, Brother.
VIXEN of VERSE 