> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://alt-press.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Jason Arday “Whistleblower” Linked to Extremist Network Following Media “Lynching” - URL: https://alt-press.ghost.io/jason-arday-whistleblower-linked-to-extremist-network-following-media-lynching/ - Published: 2026-08-28T18:44:55.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-01T13:28:50.000Z - Author: Sam Brown **Billionaire-funded white supremacist network tied to press campaign that pushed Jason Arday to suicide** Nathan Cofnas, the man whose blog post on 21 July began the British Media’s weeks-long hounding of Jason Arday, which ultimately led to his suicide, has been linked to a transnational far-right extremist network. The network, which is funded by billionaires including Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, has been attempting to mainstream discredited racist pseudoscience such as eugenics for the past decade. Cofnas, a disgruntled former Cambridge professor who describes himself as a “race realist”, was dismissed from his role at Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 2024 after he claimed on his blog that, “In a meritocracy, Harvard faculty would be recruited from the best students, which means the number of black professors would be approximately 0%. “Blacks would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.” Despite removing Cofnas from his post, the University continued to sponsor his fellowship which was financed by the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, a foundation created to distribute the wealth of William Lever, the founder of what is now Unilever. Lever's fortune was built extracting palm oil from the Congo under the horrific conditions of the Belgian empire who's King Leopold granted Lever a monopoly over the subjugated country's resource. Scientific racism is a tool which has historically been used to justify and naturalise colonialism, and that process continues to this day in the form of permanent debt crises in the developing world. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/06/0b/060bb96a-df88-4eee-9dd5-383f24067d22/content/images/2026/08/Eugenics_makes_the_world_go_-round.jpg) By Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933, artist - Library of CongressCatalog: [https://lccn.loc.gov/2011649601Image](https://lccn.loc.gov/2011649601Image?ref=alt-press.ghost.io) download: [https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/27900/27955v.jpgOriginal](https://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/ppmsca/27900/27955v.jpgOriginal?ref=alt-press.ghost.io) url: [https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649601/](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649601/?ref=alt-press.ghost.io), Public Domain, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150303191](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=150303191&ref=alt-press.ghost.io) Cofnas was introduced to Thiel by Emil Kirkegaard following a 2019 meeting after which he was given what Kirkegaard called the "Thiel treatment". Kirkegaard is a Danish race scientist who also seemingly argued in favour of paedophilia in 2012, so long as the abuser drugged the child beforehand, saying: “If they dont notice it is difficult to see how they cud \[sic\] be harmed, even if it is rape”. Kirkegaard, real name William Engman, is the CEO and founder of the Human Diversity Foundation (HDF), which is a relaunch of The Pioneer Fund, established in 1937 to promote Nazi eugenics in America. HDF received over a million dollars in funding from tech businessman Andrew Conru, founder of dating site Adult Friend Finder. But Conru pulled his funding when *The Guardian* [contacted](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/16/revealed-international-race-science-network-secretly-funded-by-us-tech-boss?ref=alt-press.ghost.io) him. The Foundation was renamed again in 2025 to Polygenic Scores following a *HOPE not hate* [exposé](https://investigations.hopenothate.org.uk/race-science-inc/?ref=alt-press.ghost.io) which also found Conru had directly funded other scientific racists. The chameleonic organisation distributes its racist pseudoscience via in-house publications Aporia and Mankind Quarterly. The former, Aporia, operates out of offices financed by major ReformUK donor and crypto billionaire Ben Delo. And Delo also sponsors the Free Speech Union, an organisation set up by columnist Toby Young which is nominally dedicated to defending freedom of expression. When Cofnas was fired from Cambridge, the Free Speech Union fought the case through two inquiries before financing his unsuccessful legal challenge. Following that failure, *Byline Times* [report](https://bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/the-peter-thiel-linked-race-science-network-that-penetrated-cambridge-university-and-targeted-jason-arday/?ref=alt-press.ghost.io) that the Free Speech Union, and the network they are part of, turned their sights on Jason Arday. Arday had been identified as a soft target whose lack of experience for such a senior post had drawn criticism. Cambridge professor Priyamvada Gopal and other senior Dons [accused](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/06/jason-arday-cambridge-dons-demand-accountability-grotesque-racism?ref=alt-press.ghost.io) the University of hiring Arday despite his limited research as a “quick fix” for its diversity issues, saying its leaders bear responsibility for the “grotesque racism” that was later unleashed. And it is clear from their public statements that the network viewed this campaign as retribution for Cofnas’s sacking. Disgraced historian David Starkey, who once [said](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jul/02/david-starkey-widely-criticised-for-saying-slavery-was-not-genocide?ref=alt-press.ghost.io) slavery was not genocide because “so many damn blacks” had survived, spelled it out explicitly in a video interview with Cofnas. Starkey, an advisor to the Free Speech Union, congratulated Cofnas for his triumph over Cambridge’s “DEI” system 5 days before Arday’s death, saying, “the reason we are both grinning is that we are enjoying vengeance. Good, honest, straightforward and Christian vengeance… we can rejoice together”. And a smirking Cofnas alluded to this in another interview before jokingly claiming, “I'll be the head of the Department of Eugenics & Race Science at Harvard,” after the revolution. > Nathan Cofnas who "broke" the story about Jason Arday. > > He says Arday gave him the chance for a story to retaliate for being fired & start a "revolution" against Black people in academia. > > "After the revolution, I'll be the head of the dept of eugenics & race science at Harvard'. [pic.twitter.com/vL713qkx7v](https://t.co/vL713qkx7v?ref=alt-press.ghost.io) > > — Lewis (@L\_A\_D\_J) [August 15, 2026](https://x.com/L%5FA%5FD%5FJ/status/2088588003530711533?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=alt-press.ghost.io) The allegations investigated by Liverpool John Moores, the University that certified Arday’s PhD. And LJMU cleared him of any academic misconduct in his PhD. They found only a mistake in the paper’s citations which they believed was an “honest and reasonable error”. And they suggested the supervision had been inadequate given that Arday had learning disabilities. Arday told The Times his autism affected how he processed and made sense of information and this may explain the issues with his other work. Cofnas had repeatedly attacked Arday’s intelligence calling him “retarded”. *Byline Times* found during a 6-month investigation that the network had deliberately begun trying to penetrate Cambridge around 2016 when Thiel Capital chief of staff Charles Vaughan visited the university to encourage like-minded academics to begin recruiting people and building influence in politics and the media. And Thiel secretly donated to Cambridge when they hired James Orr who serves as Head of Policy for ReformUK and as an advisor to the Free Speech Union. He has been described as US Vice President, and Thiel creation, JD Vance's "intellectual mentor". And Orr began mainstreaming Aporia on the UK political scene by inviting them to the far-right National Conservatism political conference. While at Cambridge Orr has reportedly alarmed fellow academics and students by using the University as a recruiting ground for his far-right political project. *Byline Times* reports that Senior academics have “raised concerns over safeguarding, student welfare, and indoctrination”. And they say, “several complaints about James Orr have reached Cambridge’s senior leadership, but no action has been taken.” Reacting to a video of the vigil for what British academic Kehinde Andrews called the media’s “lynching” of Jason Arday, Nathan Cofnas, referring to himself in the third person, positioned himself as the victim, [writing](https://www.facebook.com/nathancofnas/videos/there-is-an-anti-cofnas-hate-rally-in-trafalgar-square-with-15000-attendees-if-i/1919985595361313/) on social media: “There is an anti-Cofnas hate rally in Trafalgar Square with \~15,000 attendees. If I were in London there is a real possibility that I would be murdered. “1000s of academics & journalists knew the truth about Jason Arday for more than a year. Now you know why no one said anything.” The video was originally posted by Andy Ngo, an American provocateur and former editor of *Quillette*, another publication with ties to the Thiel network. It’s current editor, Claire Lehmann, told *Byline Times* she’d “sent Nathan Cofnas a private message asking whether he was alright,” following Arday’s suicide. The members of the network deny participating in a co-ordinated campaign against Arday. And Cambridge University’s press office avoided addressing the claims made about them saying: “Byline Times has sent the university a slew of unsubstantiated allegations, wilful mischaracterisations, and falsehoods, which we strongly reject. The volume of misleading claims and conjecture means we are unable to engage with the approach as a legitimate media enquiry.” Cofnas has since been suspended from his current post at Ghent University due to public backlash, despite long-standing complaints from colleagues over his appointment and the quality of his work.