Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to another blog entry at this site:
More proof that you were banned for your poor behavior. Any normal person would have learned their lesson by now.
Yes and no, Anonymous.
There are many people who do not like the “behavior.” That much is certainly so.
But the seemingly problematic “behavior” is just to present the lessons taught by the last 33 years of peer-reviewed research in precisely the same manner as the Buy-and-Holders present the lessons taught by the pre-1981 peer-reviewed research.
The Buy-and-Holders don’t limit themselves to one post per day or one post per week or whatever limit it is that the Buy-and-Holders want me to impose on myself.
The Buy-and-Holders do not hold back from using phrases like “this is wrong” or “this is dangerous” or “this is not consistent with the peer-reviewed research.”
The Buy-and-Holders don’t remind their readers with every comment that they post that they are human and they could be making a mistake. I don’t do this in every comment. But I do it often. That’s more than I can say for most of my Buy-and-Hold friends. A good number of my Buy-and-Hold friends don’t EVER note that it could be that they have gotten everything terribly wrong and that all of those reading their words need to be sure to check out the other point of view.
I’ve “learned the lesson” that the Buy-and-Holders are very, very, very insecure re their investing views and would prefer not to be presented with serious challenges to those views. I REJECT the idea that those of us who believe that we see something good in the last 33 years of peer-reviewed research should be holding back from saying what we believe JUST AS STRONGLY AS WE BELIEVE IT because of the intimidation tactics employed by our Buy-and-Hold friends to discourage us from doing so.
When any of us give in to the intimidation tactics, we hurt everyone. We hurt the millions of middle-class investors who need to hear both sides of the story to make good decisions. We also hurt the Wall Street Con Men, who got into this field because they want to help people plan their financial futures effectively, not because the want to cause economic crises. We also hurt the Internet Goon Squads, who end up serving prison sentences rather than engaging in fun back-and-forth conversations with their Valuation-Informed Indexing friends.
I don’t submit to intimidation tactics.
I love my Buy-and-Hold friends. But I don’t submit to intimidation tactics. In fact, that’s partly WHY I don’t submit to intimidation tactics. Intimidation tactics are for losers. I don’t like to think of my Buy-and-Hold friends as losers. So I want them to knock off the funny business. I certainly am not going to persuade them to knock off the funny business by submitting to their intimidation tactics.
I would be grateful if you would spread the word all over the internet that Rob Bennett is the fellow who REFUSED to submit to the intimidation tactics of the Wall Street Con Men and their Internet Goon Squads. I have hopes as time passes of becoming even more famous for this than I am today.
I hope that helps a bit, Anonymous.
Rob
Anonymous says
I love Buy and Hold cause I love MUH COUNTRY!
Rob says
Okay, Anonymous.
I love to warn people about the dangers of Buy-and-Hold because I love mine.
I suppose it takes all kinds.
Hang in there, old friend.
Rob
Anonymous says
Goons, goons, goons…….
I hate buy and hold, I hate buy and hold, I hate buy and hold…….
Prison, prison, prison……….
Honest posting, honest posting honest posting……
Death threat, death threats, death threats……….
lies, lies, lies………
blah, blah, blah……….
All a huge waste of time
Rob says
I think otherwise, Anonymous.
When the Freedom Riders were traveling on buses through the South, they were yelled at, spit at, beat up, sometimes even killed. Was it all a big waste of time?
When a woman has a baby, it hurts. She screams. It’s a horrible experience. Is it all a big waste of time?
If you are shopping for a computer and you go to the comments section of a review of one of the ones you are looking at, you will see people arguing that “Apple is best” and others arguing that “Windows is best” and others arguing that “Chromebook is best.” Is it all a waste of time? No, that’s how we learn, that’s how we advance, by permitting DISCUSSION that seems messy but that is performing an important purpose by making people aware of different ways of looking at things.
Progress is wonderful. Progress is what permits that 6.5 percent real return we all enjoy so much in this country. But progress is sometimes MESSY. It’s especially messy when the progress is being achieved by showing that a group of very powerful and wealthy and well-connected people made a MISTAKE that caused millions of others to suffer unemployment and still millions of others to suffer failed retirements. When progress is achieved that way, you are going to see death threats and demands for unjustified board bannings and tens of thousands of acts of defamation and threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs before you get to the other side of The Big Black Mountain.
What we have been going through for the past 13 years is a PROCESS. Yes, it is a messy process. But it is also a very, very, very important process. It is the process that has made this country great in the past and that I believe will make it great for many years into the future. This is the process by which we achieve progress and achieving continual progress to make everyone’s life better is what this country is all about. It is worth it.
We all want to bring the painful side of this process to a total and complete stop by the close of business today. But many of us are worried about what will happen to our businesses and to our reputations because of what you Goons will say about us if we post honestly. So we are afraid. We are working on it! We are working on it!
No one will ever want to go backwards once we all make it together to the other side.
I am sure.
Hang in there, old friend. It gets better. A LOT better.
Rob