# Omnibus Stupid MFers in the news thread (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 31, 2021, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945 "2021-01-31T21:25:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 411
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8211 "2023-07-26T02:38:17Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Still when it happens to Fox viewers… Yeah, they work themselves into such a world view that they only watch right wing news sources, and as far as I can tell there is no way to reach them. So when a gold commercial comes on and says that “Biden is coming for your retirement” they don’t even second guess it. But it’s willful ignorance, so it’s hard to feel bad for them even though they are being taken advantage of. It’s not like they are incompetent or senile, they are just stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8212 "2023-07-26T12:24:11Z")
Those ads are so effing ludicrous. Their pitch for investing in gold is that it will increase in value over the years, but a stack of paper money won’t. They’re counting on their audience to be too senile to understand the difference. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8213 "2023-07-26T13:00:09Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Thus their general mistrust of other people is at least somewhat grounded in reality. Oh yes. This was my mother. Frail, and lived alone. Don’t blame her really. Her CC number was stolen a couple of times. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8214 "2023-07-26T13:27:27Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > Their pitch for investing in gold is that it will increase in value over the years, but a stack of paper money won’t. While, in the next breath, arguing that gold, by definition, never changes its value. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8215 "2023-07-26T13:33:07Z")
I have family members who say they hold gold because it will remain valuable even in an utter disaster – but who hold most of it not as physical gold but as originally pieces of paper and now undoubtedly just bytes in computers, saying that they’ve got shares in a gold mine. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8216 "2023-07-26T14:18:59Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I have family members who say they hold gold because it will remain valuable even in an utter disaster Remind them that it only holds it’s value if they can find someone that’s willing to exchange goods and services for it. I think sometimes people imagine that if we have a disaster that renders paper/digital currency useless, they’ll be able to take their gold and exchange it for money. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8217 "2023-07-26T14:24:01Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I have family members who say they hold gold because it will remain valuable even in an utter disaster People who have obviously never been in a disaster. Hurricane hits, utter devastation: “I’ll trade you gold for drinking water.” “What am I going to do with gold? I’ll keep my water.” Zombie democrat socialist commie woke apocalypse: “I’ll trade you gold for ammo.” [person with ammo shoots gold bearing person, takes gold, takes food] ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8218 "2023-07-26T14:27:12Z")
Or “Sure, I’ll give you cans of food for your gold coins. One can of food for one one-ounce coin sounds like a fair trade, right?”. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8219 "2023-07-26T14:36:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > One can of food for one one-ounce coin sounds like a fair trade, right?”. I was actually visualizing it that the gold bearing person has the old school bricks, because that’s how gold was always stored when I was a kid (like the famous Mission Impossible where they melted the gold in the vault). “sure, break me off a chunk of that brick for a bottle of water. What, you can’t? Well, I guess I could take the whole brick.” ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8220 "2023-07-26T14:44:16Z")
In one sense, hoarding a precious metal for a currency-less situation does make sense – or did, back in ancient times, when people would wear armbands and other jewelry of gold or silver, and could cut off a link or a random piece to make a purchase: “[hacksilver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver).” Of course, even then there was usually an understood agreement as to a given weight’s value – subject, of course, to the relative power/desperation of buyer and seller. Wearing one’s wealth made it a lot more portable than toting around bars, always assuming one had the ability to repel bandits and other nefarious sorts. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8221 "2023-07-26T14:59:32Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I have family members who say they hold gold because it will remain valuable even in an utter disaster – but who hold most of it not as physical gold but as originally pieces of paper and now undoubtedly just bytes in computers, saying that they’ve got shares in a gold mine. I’ve consistently had shares in gold mining in my investment portfolio for years. For example: [Barrick Gold - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrick_Gold). I never realized it was just “bytes in computers”. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8222 "2023-07-26T15:20:50Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Remind them that it only holds it’s value if they can find someone that’s willing to exchange goods and services for it. They’re absolutely certain that people will take gold. Why they think they’ll be able to exchange shares in a gold mine in another country for either actual gold or for goods/services in the sort of disaster that takes down the ordinary monetary system is the part that’s beyond me. > [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > In one sense, hoarding a precious metal for a currency-less situation does make sense – or did, back in ancient times, when people would wear armbands and other jewelry of gold or silver, and could cut off a link or a random piece to make a purchase: “[hacksilver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver).” Of course, even then there was usually an understood agreement as to a given weight’s value – And generally almost nobody in those societies had bank accounts, anyway. Most such societies didn’t even have paper money, except possibly in the form of a written statement that a specific party owed X to another party. > [@peccavi](#): > > I’ve consistently had shares in gold mining in my investment portfolio for years. For example: [Barrick Gold - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrick_Gold). I never realized it was just “bytes in computers”. I’m not saying that gold makes no sense at all as part of an investment strategy, even in the form of shares in gold mines. I’m saying that, in the case of the sort of disaster that takes down the regular monetary system, the chances of your finding those shares to be accessible and valuable are pretty damn small. And yes, probably what you’ve got is information in various computers. As long as the basic system is working, this can be translated into various things ranging from gold to money to goods to voting rights in how the mine is run: so in that sense is not just bytes in a computer. But if the basic system’s not working – how would you expect those bytes to accomplish any of those things? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8223 "2023-07-26T15:26:14Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > And generally almost nobody in those societies had bank accounts, anyway. Most such societies didn’t even have paper money, except possibly in the form of a written statement that a specific party owed X to another party. But really it comes down to stability and expectation. These days, the US Dollar serves the same purpose. I may or may not be able to effectively use a traveler’s check these days but most places in the world will have some facility or person who is willing to take a hundred dollar bill if I have nothing else. That’s true as long as there is a functioning society. In such, a hunk of gold has value as well for similar reasons. And value that will be approximately the same around the world. But in the absence of a stable society, like in the aftermath of an apocalypse, the value of a chunk of metal or a piece of paper will mean whatever both sides agree on, which may not be much at all. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8224 "2023-07-26T15:43:44Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > But in the absence of a stable society, like in the aftermath of an apocalypse, the value of a chunk of metal or a piece of paper will mean whatever both sides agree on, which may not be much at all. I’m reminded of the running gag from the DRAGONLANCE books: after the big cataclysm, everyone takes to using steel coins that have obvious value because they can so easily be worked into knives or arrowheads or whatever — which means our heroes of course express disappointment, as you or I would if we found costume jewelry in a treasure chest, when they keep finding useless gold coins from back when. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8225 "2023-07-26T15:49:27Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > There is human trafficking, isn’t there? Yes, there is……but it’s not about pedophiles snatching children in suburban parking lots and selling them to Democratic politicians. It’s not about elites selling children on Wayfair. It’s about women from other countries being bought to the US or other Western countries after being promised legitimate non sex work who find themselves forced into prostitution. It’s about teenage girls who voluntarily run away with older men and get more than they bargained for. It’s about vulnerable women of all ages who end up trading sex for food and shelter. It doesn’t look anything like what the right wing conspiracy theorists want you to think, and those conspiracy theories distract from the real problem and make it harder for real victims to get help. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8226 "2023-07-26T15:51:03Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > There is human trafficking, isn’t there? Absolutely. But it’s rarely something that affects suburban middle class white families which is what the hysteria tends to be about. To use an example, one woman found a slice of cheese on her car in a church parking lot and decided that the purpose of the cheese was to make her distracted so she could be kidnapped by human traffickers. Another Momfluencer filed a false police report accusing two Latino people of trying to kidnap her children at a Michaels. Many people accepted these stories without skepticism. They have the potential to go hugely viral and in the worst cases, such as that lady who shot her innocent Uber driver because she thought she was being smuggled across the border to Mexico, they can result in extreme consequences - at the least, increased bigotry against Latinos. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8227 "2023-07-26T16:26:44Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > But in the absence of a stable society, like in the aftermath of an apocalypse, the value of a chunk of metal or a piece of paper will mean whatever both sides agree on, which may not be much at all. There are situations in the world today, between a stable society and an apocalypse, where I’m sure people wish they had gold, and could get paid in gold. I’m talking about hyperinflation, such as in Zimbabwe. If a pound of flour costs a billion quatloos today, and next week it costs 10 billion quatloos, your gram of gold that brought you five billion today will bring you 50 billion net week (roughly) and you can survive. If there is still a currency, however low in value, you would probably be able to exchange the gold (or silver, which would be more practical for small transactions) for the currency, or to trade it directly to the merchant (who will be thrilled to get it). Yes, today US dollars can fill that function, but they are not immune to inflation either. Gold is not a perfect store of value for all situations, by a long ways. But it can certainly help when the central government is failing to provide a stable currency. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8228 "2023-07-26T16:43:04Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > I’ve consistently had shares in gold mining in my investment portfolio for years. For example: [Barrick Gold - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrick_Gold). I never realized it was just “bytes in computers”. Try converting those shares into anything else without using a computer. Most financial assets, these days, are “just bytes in computers”. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8229 "2023-07-26T17:03:04Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Sometimes, I think it should be legal to separate the stupid from their money. > > Being old is, in and of itself, no defense. I would dispute that being old is no defense. Research has shown that as people get older they become more susceptible to financial scams, some part of their skepticism judgement diminishes. > **[Does aging make us more susceptible to financial scams?](https://www.marketplace.org/2019/05/16/brains-losses-aging-fraud-financial-scams-seniors/)** > > Changes to the brain make seniors prime targets for financial fraud. So, just like we don’t expect children to have responsible judgement, we might think about applying the same to some older people? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945/8230 "2023-07-26T18:02:55Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > There are situations in the world today, between a stable society and an apocalypse, where I’m sure people wish they had gold, and could get paid in gold. I’m talking about hyperinflation, such as in Zimbabwe. Not so much. Most people there would prefer US greenbacks. This is kind of my point. An apocalypse was only one example, but Zimbabwe is another where there really isn’t a stable, functional economy. The society is stable-ish but the economy only holds together because of the presence of the rest of the world. They don’t even have their own currency anymore. The Zimbabwe dollar was disfavored for obvious reasons. So what do they use? They are on a multi-currency system at the moment. US dollars is most broadly preferred. But euros and South African rands and several, mostly currencies of nearby countries are also currently used (I want to say around 10 but I’m not really sure). I’m sure some people in Zimbabwe are willing to deal with gold but greenbacks (or euros or such) are preferred, even now. If the US (and the Euro Zone and South Africa and others) ceased to exist, maybe they switch to gold as a primary medium of exchange. But in a truly apocalyptic scenario like that, all bets are truly off. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945.md?page=410) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-1/931945.md?page=412)