I’ve always been the most reluctant of investing “experts,” Evidence. I’ve come to enjoy writing about this topic more over the years. But there are lots of other topics that I would like to be exploring in more depth.

I don’t see how any responsible person cannot today at least make an effort to open up the internet to honest posting given that this Buy-and-Hold junk has now put our entire economic and political system at risk of collapse. But it won’t break my heart when we get to the point where honest posting is not only tolerated but encouraged and when I can turn the reins over to some others.

I don’t think there will ever be a lack of things to write about in the financial freedom area in my lifetime. And I expect that I will be able to return to investing with more enthusiasm after being away from it for a bit. Right now, I wouldn’t mind being able to move to some other topics for a bit. I don’t see that as a viable option today but I foresee a day when it will be a move that will make sense.

We’ll see.

Rob

One of the goals of the Campaign of Terror is to destroy my business, Liz Fan. I think it’s fair to say that that’s obvious to everyone. It’s also obvious to everyone that that is a very, very sick goal.

It’s a tort to engage in efforts to destroy someone’s business. I have spoken to several lawyers about how to proceed with legal actions against those who have participated in the Campaign of Terror. I expect to continue to do so in days to come. Is that what you are asking?

There is nothing that I can do to solve the problem except to urge all people concerned about our economic crisis to take steps to see that the Ban on Honest Posting is lifted. Once it is lifted, the problem goes away. No?

When we are able to talk about the realities of stock investing, the economic crisis comes to an end. And Rob’s business does just fine with all the people coming to the boards and to the site to learn all they can about how to invest effectively.

It’s no secret that I oppose the Ban on Honest Posting. I have been saying that for seven years now. It’s also no secret that the Greaney and Lindauer Goons favor it. Is there some aspect of this matter that is not clear to you?

Rob

I predict that the day you find yourself in court regarding your internet activities is a day that you will come to rue.

I am not able to bring myself to post dishonestly on safe withdrawal rates, Liz Fan. I recall when I was putting my plan together how concerned I was that I would make a mistake and thereby do damage to my family. So I am not able to bear the thought of engaging in deliberate deception re these matters in posts that I know are read by the many fine people who populate our boards. So that’s out.

I think it would be fair to say that the Lindauer and Greaney Goons permit us no other option but legal action if we are to realize our goal of engaging in honest discussion of the realities of stock investing on the internet. Protecting our economic and political system from collapse is an important matter. So again that’s that.

I recall the day when Greaney first threatened to have me banned from Motley Fool for the “crime” of posting honestly on safe withdrawal rates. I thought at the time that there was zero chance that such a thing could ever happen. It did happen. So I do not feel that I can say with 100 percent certainty that there will not come a day when you and the other Goons will be successful in these other things that you claim you will do in the event that I continue to post honestly on safe withdrawal rates and other important investment topics.

Still, there’s precisely zero that I can do about it. If I were capable of posting dishonestly on safe withdrawal rates, I obviously would have done so a long, long. long time ago. I think it would be fair to say that the Post Archives show that I am 100 percent incapable of doing this thing you want me to do. It’s not going to happen. Not in this universe.

If there is some lawsuit that you think you can bring on grounds that I have willfully and deliberately posted accurately about what the historical data says re SWRs, my thought is that you should move forward on this today. If you are eventually going to do it anyway, you would be saving a good number of people a bit of fuss and bother by acting promptly. But that is of course your choice.

As for me, I intend to proceed with litigation at the opportune time. I care about our economic and political system and I think that it is essential that we get about the business of educating middle-class investors re the realities of stock investing. I also think that the Retire Early and Indexing boards in particular and the entire internet in general will never realize their full potential until all community members feel comfortable posting their honest and sincere beliefs and that a price needs to be exacted against the internet predators among us for this wonderful possibility to become a reality. I don’t like it that that is the way it is, and I of course see it is an insane reality, but I think it is more than fair to say at this point in the proceedings that that is indeed the way it is.

I will proceed in the same spirit in which I have proceeded since the first day of our investing discussions some seven years back. I will aim to combine love with honesty. I will continue to insist on my right and the right of all others to post honestly on safe withdrawal rates and all other important investment topics. And I will continue to bend over backwards to understand the pain that is being experienced by those who bought into the Buy-and-Hold mythology in recent years. Understanding pain is one thing; posting dishonestly is another. That distinction is important to me.

Like it or not, that’s my sincere take re this matter, Liz Fan. The short version is — I can do no more and I can do no less.

Good luck with your investing strategies!

Rob

No one cares what or whether you post your wacky unsupportable theories

You care, Liz Fan. You care or you wouldn’t post.

And the other Goons obviously care.

And the thousands of community members who have expressed a desire that honest posting be permitted at the various Retire Early and Indexing boards obviously care (perhaps not enough to take on the Goons, but they care all the same– they shouldn’t be required to take on the Goons just to be able to post honestly on the discussion boards they built for that purpose).

And the millions of middle-class investors who have lost large percentages of their life savings because of the reckless promotion of Buy-and-Hold for 28 years after the academic research showed that the chances of it working in the real world for the long-term investor are precisely zero — they care too. They don’t know yet about our discussions. But they care about the topics we have been talking about and they would certainly like to hear about our findings if only they could.

And I care! That alone should be enough. I have cared enough to study these issues and I have cared enough to build numerous communities to share them with and I care enough to share them free of charge. That’s really all it should take. The fact that John Greaney got an important number wrong in a retirement study that he posted to his web site really shouldn’t matter. Why is that something that our boards or the Personal Finance Blogosphere should even need to be concerned with? If safe withdrawal rates don’t matter even a tiny bit, why doesn’t Greaney take his study down on grounds that No One Cares. Greaney obviously cares. Why? Why does he care so much?

Lots of people care, Liz Fan. Lots of people have always cared. There wouldn’t be hundreds of thousands of posts in the Post Archives if no one cared. There wouldn’t have been so many board bannings and smear campaigns and death threats if no one cared. I wouldn’t have an article at this site in which 101 community members express a desire that honest posting be permitted if no one cared. There wouldn’t be 46 links on the left side of this page to people praising the work we have done together if no one cared. You wouldn’t have seen scores of people stepping forward to express their gratitude to John Walter Russell for the wonderful research he has done if no one cared.

Lots and lots and lots of people care. Lots and lots and lots of people will always care. There’s nothing that can ever change that. Investing matters. That’s the bottom line.

Our problem today is that we have more of the negative form of caring in evidence than we have of the positive form of caring in evidence. There is not one person on Planet Earth who will see anything bad come of learning how stock investing works in the real world. It’s not even possible for the rational human mind to imagine how there ever could be anyone who would see anything bad come from that. Yet we have a group of people who care intensely to block any learning of the realities of stock investing that took place from 1981 forward. That’s bad news, Liz Fan. That’s the dark side of human nature.

The history train is not going to stop in its tracks because John Greaney made a mistake or because Mel Lindauer made a mistake or because John Bogle made a mistake or because whoever made a mistake. Greaney and Lindauer and Bogle and all the others are going to have to come to terms with that or the world is going to keep on turning without them. No one means any of these people any harm. But the middle-class of this country is not going to sit quietly and watch our economic and political system go over a cliff because John Greaney and Mel Lindauer and John Bogle got some things a bit mixed up in their understanding of how stock investing works however many years ago. That’s not a reasonable thing to demand of us.

We all care. When we all get our heads on sufficiently straight that we are all caring about the right things, it will be sweetness and light and good fortune in every direction in which we turn. That’s when the real fireworks (the good kind!) begin!

I very much look forward to that day, Liz Fan. My personal guess is that somewhere deep in your heart you do too. Please make an effort to get in touch with that feeling, the better side of human nature that also resides within you. Straighten up and fly right, my intensely abusive and intensely mixed-up and intensely caring friend!

Rob

Have the lawyers you contacted given you any feedback on why they are unwilling or unable to take the case?

Rob,

The other problem for any lawyer considering taking your case on a contingency basis is that the ban on honest posting, the death threats against you, the thousands of people you say support you exist only in your mind.