Mary,
My fault. I was trying to make my point too obliquely. Allow me to try again.
"Asensio said that a big red flag to a suspect company is a company that responds in any way to shorters or "bashers.""
Asensio may be a great short-trader, but he doesn't know much about human psychology. His philosophy has much to be desired as well.
It is human nature to come to the defense of a colleague, an employee or an associate.
You're a good example of this. You've made a number of posts defending one aspect or another of Elgindy's arrest, even though there is a chance he might be guilty as charged. Rightfully so, you have assume his presumption of innocence and have spoken out forcefully on his behalf.
But, how do you think a CEO, even a guilty one, is going to react if one or more of his officers are personally attacked or if in addition to embarrassingly true allegations a lot of false allegations are made against his company? Would they do any differently than you have done for your friend/mentor/whatever?
You simplify the problem way too much. I'll generally agree that short traders don't go after completely honest companies. Nonetheless, when they go after companies that have legitimate problems they often seem to take this as a license to engage in any lie, any innuendo, any rumor and allege any unsubstantiated crime or misdemeanor they can come up with. I suppose the short-trader credo is, "if they lie, we can lie better".
It's small wonder to me that Asensio would prefer to assume the guilt of a CEO who has the temerity to respond to his tormenters. If he's bashing with both truths and falsehoods it's to his personal interest to keep his audience in a state of confusion.
Essentially, it is the philsophy that "I" can say anything about you that "I" want to and if you respond you must be guilty.
Asensio's statement is nothing more than an attempt to manipulate his reader's into believing that anybody who defends themselves must be hiding something. In reality, it is nothing more than a grotesque self-serving lie.
It is bad philosophy and bad psychology. |
