"It's political correctness gone sad". posted by Richard Seymour

Stockbrokers, shareholders, drug-dealers and dabblers in venality! I give you Vicefund , courtesy of the Bat Cave . Here is how Vicefund advertise themselves to Joe Sixpack:

“It is the Advisor's philosophy that although often considered politically incorrect, these and similar industries and products...will continue to experience significant capital appreciation during good and bad markets. The Advisor considers these industries to be nearly ‘recession-proof.’” - Vice Fund Prospectus, July 30, 2004, page 1, column 2.

People will always want to fuck, hook, rape, torture and kill one another, so as long as this turns a profit and doesn't interfere with our liberties - why the hell not?

In fact, the justifications they offer for investing in various "politically incorrect" industries are straightforward bourgeois opinion. Take this sermon on the merits of investing in defense industries:

Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea. Those should be reason enough to believe in Defense Stocks. Homeland Security and anti-terrorism have become large, profitable industries. So called "Socially Responsible Investors" would claim that you shouldn't own stocks that have anything to do with defense or weapons. That means that all of the Aerospace and Defense Industries are to be avoided. Maybe in a perfect world these industries wouldn't need to exist, but until that perfect world does exist, we want to own these stocks.

But wait, here comes the best bit:

Are these good stocks to own? The new Bush budget calls for increased defense spending, and defense stocks have performed historically well following conflict. As an example, look at any public information on stocks like Lockheed Martin or General Dynamics since the 1970's. You'll see that they outperformed the S&P 500 Index by wide margins over the past 30+ years

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Capital moves in mysterious ways.

What I hate most about political-correctness is how it sanctifies the alleged 'transgression' of some banal, uninteresting right-wing view. If someone says to me today, "yeah, women'll always break yer heart, they'll always fuck you up, 'cos they ain't never satisfied", I tend to think - so would I if I had the chance, you scheming little bastard. It isn't their views I find offensive - I'm quite jaded - it is the fact that they think they're breaking some kayfabe, some taboo in expressing such unimaginative, thoughtless drivel. It seems to such thoughtless cretins, so I imagine, that they are upsetting the status quo with their outrageous views - analogous in many ways to how Hitchens believes he is upsetting the 'status quo' by supporting the neoconservatives.


Anyway, since Hitchens stands in revolutionary defense of the tobacco leaf, imperialism and booze, he really ought to consider investing in this this , this and this . I shall take personal offense if he does not. I wouldn't mind bit of a bum-chafing either if he has time on his hands, but...