MDW1954 wrote:melonfool wrote:Gengulphus wrote:Fully stopping that stereotyping once it's happening is a hard problem, and I don't know how to do it. But descriptions of other people, especially in ill-defined group terms that leave people uncertain whether they're meant to be included, play a major part in the stereotyping, and so does language with religious associations.
I don't think it would be acceptable or within the culture of this site, to say 'all football fans are idiots', for example. So calling people who follow a certain investment strategy 'zealots', or 'disciples' etc is no different. This thread has plenty of examples of people doing that as well, as a way to demean those who want to use the board in its proper way and 'win' this argument.
With respect, Mel and Gengulphus, there is surely a huge difference between "idiot" and "disciple". One is obviously derogatory, the other a simple statement of fact.
Agreed that there's a big difference - "idiot" is derogatory pretty much in and of itself, "disciple" is quite often not - for instance, "all Christians are disciples of Jesus Christ" would seem pretty obviously non-derogatory to me. There is a possibility that someone regards themselves as a Christian but not a disciple of Jesus Christ, of course, and if so, they might reasonably dispute the statement's truth. But any insult would have been created by their own minds...
MDW1954 wrote:And to my mind, when Dod (or anyone else) says something like "True disciples of course would ignore that argument and simply go for the higher yield" they are simply re-stating a tenet of HYP investing: all other things being equal, go for the share with the higher yield.
No, they're leaving out the "all other things being equal" part and adding a "would ignore that argument" part. And the argument concerned was about the dividend prospects for the companies
not being equal. The board guidance doesn't actually say that HYPers should pay attention to the dividend prospects, but certainly allows attention to be paid to them by saying "
Additional criteria may be used by individuals." And personally, I regard the failure to say anything more about them as a surprising flaw in the guidance, as the dividend prospects are both obviously relevant to a strategy whose primary aim is dividend income and a well-established, normal aspect of HYP strategies, if only through the pretty common use of forecast dividends.
The word "disciple" does have religious associations - it doesn't actually say that the person concerned is acting out of blind faith rather than for rational reasons, but it does at least mildly suggest it. Put it in a statement that they would ignore a rational argument about a very relevant-to-HYP matter, and that suggestion is greatly amplified. I don't think it's actually derogatory, but I certainly regard it as stereotyping and undesirable.
And as IMHO "zealot" is a stronger term than "disciple", and Mel said "
I suppose calling someone a 'zealot' is not defamatory as such, but it's the underlying ethos here.", I suspect that she feels similarly.
Gengulphus