“It Didn’t Start With Death Threats. It Started With Small Expressions of Disapproval. I Didn’t Take the Hint. I Continued to Say That Valuations Affect Long-Term Returns and To Offer Investing Advice Consistent With That Belief. Then the Expressions of Disapproval Grew Stronger. Then They Became Outright Intimidation Tactics. Eventually They Became Death Threats and Board Bannings.”

Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for another blog entry at this site:

“All human beings want to be liked.”

First you said it was death threats, job threats and board bannings. Now you say they just want to be liked. Which is it?

It didn’t start with death threats for me either, Anonymous. It started with small expressions of disapproval. I didn’t take the hint. I continued to say that valuations affect long-term returns and to offer investing advice consistent with that belief. Then the expressions of disapproval grew stronger. Then they became outright intimidation tactics. Eventually they became death threats and board bannings.

The same would happen if Shiller said everything that he believes about stock investing. If you want to hear him offer his true beliefs on all possible topics, you Goons need to take a chill pill. Let him say what he truly believes and he will be happy to help you out. When he sees even tiny hints of the truly ugly stuff, he pulls back. And then you never get to hear what he has to say.

And of course it’s the same with all the others. We could have thousands and thousands of people advocating Valuation-Informed Indexing strategies every day. But you need to punish people less if you want them to offer their sincere views. That’s the key. You Goons all need to take the hate stuff down about 17 notches.

I hope that helps a tiny bit.

Rob