[snip]
I was earlier thinking that the religious connection was unfair ground to tread on, but more and more it is seeming that GAW is being run by a radical religious sect. Wtf.
What in the quote that you posted said anything about religion?
You are (purposefully?) missing my point.
GAW runs HT like a religious sect. Bannings, "us vs them", answering legitimate questions with "trust me" or "I have faith in Josh" etc. etc.
Is it really any surprise that one of the flock has decided to threaten to commit an act of violence?
I had (mis)read your statement as saying that "threat of violence" therefore "radical religious sect". The comparison would be fine just saying "radical sect", there are plenty of radical non-religious sects, and there's nothing to suggest that any of this has anything to do with religion. What was posted earlier seemed to be that one of the employees ran a church or something, that seems to have nothing to do with the issue here.
True, radical cult or sect maybe better. But most (if not all) such radical cults and sects have a religious bases and it does seem that at several of the GAW folk have some common religious ties ... and historically cult leaders have almost universally (mis)used religion to foment absolute loyalty and to prevent reason from destroying unity within the following ... so its not the "religion" I object to; but it is the cultism which is demonstrated every day on HT and my point is that a highly charismatic person could use his or her religious connections to instill such behavior.
The formation of "Anti Troll" squads seems like a dangerous precursor to this and is right in line with some of the brainwashing and control techniques used by cult leaders historically.
It goes back to the main question people her keep asking: why do so many folks on HT still believe despite all evidence? A cult would explain much and an "XPY Army" (even if it is just some loser couch potato making threats) sounds to me like something more than an investor who is unhappy with internet chatter.
I have been on a lot of shareholder discussion/internet boards .. have never seen anyone threaten violence because someone was reporting bad news or even rumors of bad news. The fact that the comment maker has taken it so personally sounds to me in my admittedly armchair psychologist position as someone who is taking this a lot more personally; who views attacks on GAW at attacks on truth, god, or whatever.
I would say that people take it personally because they trace the causal links of their losing money directly to these quote fud unquote articles. Plus the us vs them mentality, which probably isn't that widespread on shareholder boards.
Fun experiment for you to try; go to one of those forums for "get rich quick with stock signals and technical trading" bullshit, and quote the studies showing that technical trading doesn't cover fees on average. Then come back here and let us know who was more vicious.