“As a Society We Have to Deal With the Death Threats and Job Threats Before the Substantive Stuff Can Get Widely Known.”

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

Can we count on you for discussing the death threats and job threats over on this new board as well?

I never lead with the death threats and the job threats. The substantive stuff is what matters most and people hate to hear about the death threats and the job threats.

But as a society we have to deal with the death threats and job threats before the substantive stuff can get widely known. Shiller published his “revolutionary” (his word) research 37 years ago. The obvious question that anyone asks when someone tells them about the realities of stock investing is: “Why haven’t I heard about this before?” It’s not possible to explain the 37-year cover-up without making reference to the death threats and job threats. It’s not possible to pull something like this off without death threats and job threats.

There are other things that help to explain the 37-year cover-up. Cognitive dissonance is a big one. The counter-intuitive nature of some of the realities. Just the fact that we don’t know it all. Ignorance. That’s a factor that should not be overlooked. I talk about that stuff. I don’t talk only about death threats and job threats. I never have and I never will.

My job is to tell the story. Death threats and job threats are part of the story. So I will tell about them when necessary and to the extent necessary. I try not to put too much emphasis on them. Because they are not the entire story. I try to give them the right amount of attention, not too much and not too little.

I wish that there had never been any death threats or job threats. But that’s not the world we live in. That’s not the reality.

We don’t get fewer death threats and fewer job threats by ignoring them, by never talking about them. Ignoring them causes us to see more death threats and more job threats. I am 100 percent sure. Our problem has not been that we have talked too little about death threats and job threats. By not talking about those that have taken place, we have caused more of them to take place. Which is of course not the way that any of us want to take this. Which of course does not help any of us and which hurts every last one of us.

You can count on me to tell the story. It is always my aim to be as honest as possible without ever crossing the line and becoming uncharitable while also being as charitable as possible without ever crossing the line and becoming dishonest.

I hope that helps a small bit, dear Goon friend.

My best wishes to you.

Death Threat and Job Threat Discusser (But Only to the Extent Necessary to Tell a Story Important to All of Us) Rob