Zionist Nathan Cofnas, the ‘shit-flooding’ supposed academic behind the press pile-on that hounded Prof Jason Arday to death, has constantly positioned himself as ‘always the victim’. He is an Israel supporter, after all. But his ‘poor little me’ shtick fell apart after the US ambassador to Belgium threatened Ghent university for suspending the literal ethno-supremacist after the Canary revealed his colleagues’ assessment of his competence.
Bill White launched a Trumpian ad hominem rant threatening the university with defunding and other harm. He even ended it with Trump’s posturing phrase “Thank you for your attention to this matter”:
The United States Mission to Belgium condemns, in the strongest terms, Ghent University’s retaliation against an American scholar following his accurate whistleblower reporting on academic fraud.
The United States government regularly funds and supports research, academic exchanges, and other engagements with overseas universities. Dishonest, corrupt institutions that engage in, or reward, scapegoating mob behavior are not desirable partners for us. This is particularly true where the purpose and effect of the scapegoating is to punish accurate journalism unearthing academic dishonesty. We are therefore reviewing any relationships we have with Ghent University.
Bad-faith idealogues will try to make this a referendum on the content of Cofnas’s scholarship – or polemical distortions of it. That’s wrong. Free speech means that controversial views are protected. And Cofnas’s views were known to Ghent University when he was hired.
The ultimate purpose of freedom of speech is to overturn lies, fraud, and false ideologies. This is precisely what Cofnas was doing, and precisely the reason his home institution wants to silence him.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
There was, of course, no hint of shame at accusing others of “mob behavior” after Cofnas did exactly that – and expected to be rewarded for it.
The United States Mission to Belgium condemns, in the strongest terms, Ghent University’s retaliation against an American scholar following his accurate whistleblower reporting on academic fraud.
The United States government regularly funds and supports research, academic…
— U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White (@USAmbToBelgium) August 21, 2026
Ghent university — ‘The puppet is still talking but we see the hands behind the strings’
The race-war significance of this didn’t escape observers like anthropologist Diego Ballastero — nor did the US’s erasure of Cofnas’s victim, Jason Arday:
2/ So let’s drop the mythology of the lonely whistleblower. Cofnas has institutional power behind him. He has platforms, media networks, political allies—and now diplomatic pressure. The “outsider” suddenly has an empire speaking for him.
— Diego A. Ballestero (@InsurgentMemory) August 21, 2026
4/ “Bad-faith ideologues will try to make this a referendum on the content of Cofnas’s scholarship.”
Of course we will discuss the scholarship. Race science is not politically neutral because you put the words “academic freedom” around it.— Diego A. Ballestero (@InsurgentMemory) August 21, 2026
6/ The statement also pretends that the only issue is whether Cofnas’s views are “controversial.” The political question is not whether someone is allowed to hold an unpopular opinion. It is when institutions legitimise, fund, platform and protect racism
— Diego A. Ballestero (@InsurgentMemory) August 21, 2026
8/ States don’t suddenly become defenders of academic freedom because they discovered one controversial academic. Ask what happens to scholars who challenge state power, colonial violence, racism or militarism. Ask who gets diplomatic protection and funding. Ask who gets silenced
— Diego A. Ballestero (@InsurgentMemory) August 21, 2026
10/ And this is why the “Cofnas as powerless victim” narrative is so misleading. A university hired him, gave him a platform. Media amplified him. Political networks now defend him. And a foreign government has entered the dispute. Powerless? Please
— Diego A. Ballestero (@InsurgentMemory) August 21, 2026
12/ So yes, let’s talk about academic freedom. Freedom for whom? Protected by whom? Funded by whom? Against whom? And at whose expense?
— Diego A. Ballestero (@InsurgentMemory) August 21, 2026
13/ For months we were told this was about one brave academic standing alone against a hostile institution.
Now the U.S. government has publicly entered the fight. The puppet is still talking. But we can finally see some of the hands behind the strings— Diego A. Ballestero (@InsurgentMemory) August 21, 2026
And the power dynamic was further revealed when the supposedly-cancelled ‘academic’ was immediately given a platform in the Wall Street Journal to whine and raise funds:
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Cofnas already admitted targeting Jason Arday to make a point against Black academics and to get revenge on Cambridge University for dismissing him.
But Arday looks more and more transparently like a victim of the billionaire-backed US far-right network to which Cofnas is linked:
Byline Times calls it what it is: a far-right race science network.
Backed by Peter Thiel. Housed inside Cambridge University. Defended by the Free Speech Union. Connected to Reform UK’s Head of Policy.
This is the network the British media amplified 249 times. pic.twitter.com/uGGBsTMQa4
— Claudia Webbe (@ClaudiaWebbe) August 21, 2026
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
