I’ve added an article entitled Internet Harassment by Defenders of the Conventional Retirement Studies to the “Banned at Motley Fool!” section of the site. The article sets forth the text of an e-mail that I sent to my congressman urging government action to deal with the problem of internet harassment and outlining the intimidation tactics that have been employed to block those seeking to engage in honest and informed discussions of the analytical errors of the Old School safe-withdrawal-rate studies and of the effect of valuations on long-term stock returns in general from doing so.
Juicy Excerpt: The intimidation is achieved through the vilest means imaginable. I have seen threats to kill me, my wife and my children. I have seen posts charging falsely that I engage in plagiarism. I have seen posts claiming falsely that my parents were alcoholics. I have seen posts claiming that I stalk women. I have seen posts claiming that my wife has left me. When I have been quoted in newspapers, the Goons have sent e-mails to the reporters who wrote the articles or to their editors making false claims about my financial status. When bloggers report favorably on my writings or my calculators, the Goons put forward suggestions that new web sites will need to be established to ridicule these people. In cases in which these people do continue to report positively on our community’s findings, these threats are carried out. I have had malicious “reviews” of my book posted at web sites and at Amazon.com. The obvious intent of these efforts is to intimidate people who show an inclination to discuss our community’s findings on retirement and on stock investing in general from doing so.
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