“You Have Never Once Posted an External Link to Any of Those Things. If They Had Happened, the Perpetrator Would Have Been Banned. Instead, Universally, You Were Banned.”

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

You have never once posted an external link to any of those things. If they had happened, the perpetrator would have been banned. Instead, universally, you were banned.

What would a disinterested bystander conclude after being presented with these undeniable facts?

Emotion plays with people’s minds, Anonymous. I mentioned in a previous post that I wrote in response to a similar comment how O.J. was found innocent at his trial but is widely viewed today as guilty of the crime for which he was charged.

Millions of people have their lives staked on the legitimacy of the Buy-and-Hold strategy. Say that you are a guy who is 60 years old and who has $1 million in his portfolio today. If Shiller is right, that fellow has a true portfolio value of $500,000. Do you think he enjoys hearing that? What our minds don’t want to hear, we block out. This has been going on since the beginning of time.

What happens when that fellow sees $500,000 of his life savings disappear into thin air? Does he send a thank-you note to Saint Jack?

I don’t think he is going to send a thank-you note. I think he is going to be on the look-out for explanations for why he was encouraged to follow an investing strategy that ruined his life.

But we will have to wait a bit to find out for sure how things are going to play out.

I naturally wish you all the best that this life has to offer a person.

O.J.-Skeptic Rob