I absolutely agree that plagiarism is not good, whether through sloppiness or whatever. Anyone who reads my stories on Medium knows how careful I am about sourcing any quotes I use, and I would expect scholars to do the same.

My point, though, was not to discuss the efficacy of the charges. My point was that the kinds of errors she made are commonplace, as you point out when you mention that the issue of plagiarism is a serious one and mention the various instances of it.

To me, this was not about plagiarism. It was about demonizing a specific individual. Neil Gorsuch, also, was accused of plagiarism. He's now a sitting Supreme Court justice.

In fact, I'd say it's a good bet that the people who hunted down these mistakes of Dr. Gay said, "Everyone does it. All we gotta do is track some down." People like Craig Smith and Bill Ackman, the latter of whom I didn't mention in this article, have publicly stated that their mission is to methodically take down what they see as an uber-liberal bias in higher education.

I doubt Ackman will be silenced now that his wife, Neri Oxman, has been accused of plagiarizing in her 2010 dissertation.

So yes: if this all leads to increased scrutinization of dissertations and article in peer reviewed journals, good. But what isn't good is the systemic attacks against those in the universities who have beliefs conservatives and right wingers are not comfortable with.