Set forth below is the text of a comment that I recently posted to the discussion thread for another blog entry at this site:
“there is no other possible explanation for their failure to speak up in opposition to death threats and demands for unjustified board bannings and thousands of acts of defamation and threats to get academic researchers fired from their jobs than that they are frightened little rabbits. ”
Seriously? I can immediately think of several other possible explanations.
1. They never heard of you.
2. They aren’t aware of your claims.
3. They are aware you claim such things happened, but don’t believe you.
4. They don’t care about your board bannings and other perceived injustices. Why would they? Do you care about other people’s bannings? If so, if you’ve never mentioned it.
You seem to firmly believe that everyone ought to be a social justice warrior on your behalf. How many more years will it take you to grasp the fact that the world doesn’t work that way?
We didn’t discover that valuations affect long-term returns yesterday, Anonymous. We discovered it 37 years ago. Millions of people have been hurt in very serious ways because of the 37-year-delay in our launching of a national debate re how stock investing works in the real world. This stuff matters.
I would say that people should be social justice warriors on their OWN behalf. We all benefit from learning how stock investing works in the real world. It’s not even possible for the rational human mind to imagine any downside to permitting honest posting at every discussion board and blog on the internet.
The world hasn’t worked in the way that I believe it should work for 16 years running now. You’ve got me re that one.
Will things change after the next crash, when people will be able to see by looking at their own portfolio statements how much they have been hurt by the continued promotion of the Buy-and-Hold “strategy”? I think so. But I acknowledge that it is at least possible that I will be proven wrong.
Even if no one works up the courage to speak up and we all go down together, I will at least enjoy the small satisfaction of knowing that I did everything in my power to protect the country I love. In difficult circumstances, that’s something, no?
Do you have any better ideas? Should I be willing to go to prison with you Goons? Somehow that option doesn’t light my fire. Call me madcap, you know?
I think people should speak out. 100 percent. I think people WILL speak out following the crash. Also 100 percent. I know that, even if not one other person speaks out, I want it on my record that I spoke out. I want to be able to sleep at night. I made lots of friends back at the old Retire Early board. I listened to their stories. I heard about their dreams and their fears. If I can’t work up the courage to do what it takes to protect them from a con man, then I don’t feel good enough about the person that I have become to be able to sleep at night. So I play it the way my conscience tells me to play it.
If loving one’s country makes one a social justice warrior, then loving one’s country makes one a social justice warrior. I love my country and I offer precisely zero apologies for feeling that way. Others will have to figure out what others will do. I speak out for the idea of permitting honest posting re the last 37 years of peer-reviewed research in this field at every discussion board and blog on the internet. I wish that I has spoken out sooner. That’s my only regret.
I love you Goons, Anonymous. But there are limits, you know? We all have to have lines that we will not cross. Mine is that I will never say that I believe that Greaney included a valuation adjustment in the retirement study posted at his web site. I will go down with the ship before I take that one back (unless someone is able to produce evidence that the study does indeed contain a valuations adjustment that not one of the thousands of people who have looked at it have been able to identify until this day).
My best wishes.
Social Justice Warrior Rob
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