** 21-Nov-2019 World View: Forum posters
Higgenbotham wrote:
> That's pretty simple if you ask me. But first let's talk about who
> is still here and why.
> You are still here because you own the site. Aeden, in my opinion,
> is still here because he was never really bearish circa 2009. He
> consistently said the market would go higher and he was the only
> one who consistently said that besides JLak and Marc, so far as I
> can recall. Yet, at the same time, Aeden knew the crisis was off
> somewhere in the distance and he hung around here for that reason
> (I think). As for me, I never stopped believing that there will be
> a devastating stock market crash and have been able to stay afloat
> and wait for it. jcsok is similar.
> Most others probably thought they had better things to do in life
> than to talk about a financial crisis that was clearly no longer
> happening (I would put Lily and StilesBC in that category for
> sure, as well as probably JLak, mannfm11 and CarlLieberman). Since
> the market was no longer having any upsets after 2011, most folks
> just drifted away for that reason, in my opinion. Other than that,
> we know freddyv passed away. There was one guy who left because of
> you, and I'll remember his handle in a little bit (TomAcre). Not
> sure why Old1953 moved on, as he had a lot to contribute, seemed
> to enjoy it, and wasn't particularly hung up on the crisis
> happening right away. ...
> Having said all of the above, in my opinion, the less activity
> there is on this section of the forum, the stronger the indication
> that the stock market will crash.
> Some who understand market sentiment might think that they will
> need to clean me out and silence me before the market can crash. I
> clearly understand that. And that might be what it takes.
> It would not surprise me a bit if there are a couple dozen hedge
> fund guys and others lurking here but not posting for that exact
> reason.
I agree with your analysis, but I come to it from a different point of
view -- and I mean on the geopolitical side, versus you on the
financial side. I'm going to pass over the issue of some people not
posting because they want to harm you, since I don't believe that
issue applies to me.
I think I've talked about this before, but it's important to this
discussion. Let's take for example China's plans to launch a war with
the US, which has been pretty obvious for years, because the Chinese
military has been producing and deploying one ballistic missile system
after another which have no purpose except to attack American aircraft
carriers, cities, and military bases.
When I started talking about this both online and in person around 2004,
people discussed it with me to tell me that it was wrong. Obviously
many people at worst thought I was a nut, or at best thought I
was talking about a problem which was many decades into the future.
In either case, they found it amusing to discuss it with me, because
it was so outlandish, and I appeared to be a kook.
However, as time has gone on, there has been a clear split among
people that I know. I attribute this to the fact that as the years
have gone by, it's increasingly clear that I'm not a kook, and China
IS preparing for war with the US. Some people obviously don't even
want to think about it, and those people shun me or get angry with me
-- including friends whom I've known since college. The anger can
usually be attributed to Leon Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance.
This was true of the people at Breitbart. Except for Bannon, the
Breitbart people were always extremely contemptuous of me. I always
fooled myself into thinking that the thousands of articles that I
wrote for them without pay meant something to them, but in the end
they made a fool out of me and treated me like a piece of garbage.
That's the kind of people they are, but it's common among young
people.
On the other hand, there are others who have had the opposite reaction
for the same reason. That is, as it became clear that the concerns
about China's military buildup are obviously true, a number of people
have actually expressed increased interest in the forum. I don't know
if you've noticed, but the average number of forum visitors has
increased some 20-30% in the last month. Maybe that's because of me,
or maybe it's because of you, or maybe I'm being attacked by China,
but it's happening.
But there's a nuance here. I was talking to someone who wanted to
compliment me on my work. So he said something to that effect. So I
said, "But you think it's completely full of crap, don't you?" He
said, "I read all your e-mail messages," referring to my e-mail free
subscription list. I said, "But you read them because you consider
them to like a daily comic strip." He said, "Oh, I think you may have
some very thoughtful points." I was pretty disgusted at that point,
but I should have said, "Oh OK, so you think my articles are like the
Peanuts comic strip?"
So returning to the whole point of this discussion, and why so many
people have stopped contributing, there are perhaps tens of thousands
of people who read my web site and the forum on a regular basis.
The biggest change since 2005 is that the threat from China is far
more credible today than it was then, and the people who visit the
web site and the forum no longer consider me to be a total kook.
So now returning to the financial side, the same kind of analysis
applies. Few people in 2005 thought that a stock market crash was
credible, since all the problems had been fixed in the 1930s. After
the financial crisis, few people thought that an additional stock
market crisis was credible, since all the problems had been fixed
after the financial crisis. Today, it's a lot more credible that
there will be a stock market crash and global financial crisis.
So the same kind of reasoning prevails. People who read the
forum as guests are trying to decide whether to sell their stocks.
They don't want to post anything, but they may be looking for
guidance -- maybe from me, but probably more from you.
I just read jcsok's posting, and as he suggests there is a political
issue. Liberals don't want to think about an attack by China
because to do so supports Trump. Liberals DO want to think about
a stock market correction because it would hurt Trump.