“The Great Thing About the Internet Is That It Allows Ideas to Spread in Ways That They Never Could Before. The Bad Thing About It is That Many People See the Spread of Ideas as a Threat and See That Their Best Strategy for Fighting Back Is Through Personal Attack Rather Than Through Intellectual Debate.”

Set forth below is the text of an e-mail that I sent on December 19, 2018, to Helen Andrews, author of the amazing Shame Storm article at First Things.

Helen:

My name is Rob Bennett. Your “Shame Storm” article at First Things was astounding. Holy smokes! You did what journalists are trying to do all the time and rarely pull off — you told an important story with balance and detail and a scary level of honesty. It’s unfortunate that you had to live through a lot of personal pain to get there. But, hey, that’s the job, right? I haven’t come across an article that made me just sit back and think that much in a long time. And I know that I am not the only one because it was a rave write-up at the National Review that caused me to check it out.

I want to share with you the sad story of my own bit of internet personal pain (that’s a joke — kinda, sorta). I write about personal finance and have been doing so for a long time. The great thing about the internet is that it allows ideas to spread in ways that they never could before. The bad thing about it is that many people see the spread of ideas as a threat and see that their best strategy for fighting back is through personal attack rather than through intellectual debate. I was a widely loved figure in the days before I pointed out the grave problems with the Buy-and-Hold investment strategy. Today I refer to myself as “the most hated blogger on the internet.” Read the article and you will see that that is not an empty brag.

I really enjoyed your article. In the event that you do read mine, please know that I would love to hear your reaction. And please don’t let the bad guys get you down!

Rob