Urbanization separates people from nature, and separated from nature they lose touch with the reality of wealth and value as they are continually immersed in a virtual economy. The city dweller doesn’t see wealth as production because most produce nothing, they just consume. Our urban populations don’t see the difference between actual wealth and the representations of wealth that we use to make commerce easier so they’re easily led astray by dangerous ideas like paper money being the same as gold. Leftists like Marcotte don’t understand that there is a difference between the symbols of wealth and the actual wealth those symbols represent.

A very smart man I know once made the point that true wealth was a flock of egg laying chickens, and all other forms of money we use are simply replacements for the ability to produce enough food to feed your family and have leftovers to barter with. Of all these representations gold has remained viable throughout history as cultures spanning the ages, from the ancient Sumerians to today’s Islamic regimes, recognize gold as a store of wealth. “Teabaggers” one and all, I suppose.

The “reality based” community of the Left looks at declining purchasing power of the dollar, accelerating food inflation and collapse in world commodity production and doesn’t see how these things affect their ability to purchase food. The Marcottes of the world see cotton prices spiking +105% and don’t see how that combined with a weak dollar will affect them – but they will come winter when it’s time for a new coat. Robin Griffiths, a technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, told CNBC: “I think not owning gold is a form of insanity. It may even show unhealthy masochistic tendencies, which might need medical attention.” And leftists think that he’s a “sadist” for trying to protect your ability to feed your family.

That’s the crux of the matter. Let’s say Marcotte is right about what forces are driving gold up and the dollar down, which of course she isn’t. But if she was how would it make sense to declare gold the exclusive purview of political opponents? Look back at the charts I posted. If you bought an ounce of gold around 2001 you would have paid about $350 for it. Today that ounce is worth almost $1,400. I dare say that all those “sadists” will be feeding their families with more than “nostalgia” as the rising commodity prices make their way through the system and hit us this summer.

But all the readers who believe Amanda Marcotte and every other JournoList toady‘s dismissive articles about the value of gold are losing purchasing power and becoming poorer. Intent on attacking Americans and capitalism Amanda Marcotte is literally willing to allow her supposed friends and allies to become poorer, and in a worst case scenario impoverished, to score a cheap political point. On the part of her reader this is financial illiteracy of the most basic kind – the inability to understand the relative value of their money in relation to other measurements of value. But for Marcotte it’s much more sinister.

Angry, nihilistic and hateful Amanda Marcotte only cares about hurting her perceived enemies. Her pronunciations on what is “sadism” are textbook projection, and ironic coming from a woman who supports a form of female genital mutilation. Like all sadists she doesn’t care about her supposed friends being hurt by her actions, and I would suspect secretly would take pleasure in that too.

Amanda Marcotte is an influential voice on the Left and she is telling the gullible, sheep-like leftist masses not to invest in a time tested protection from currency devaluation and commodity scarcity. She is willing to bankrupt people who trust her for the sake of the transitory pleasure she receives from lashing out at others.

So who’s the real sadist here?

Financial illiteracy is one of the greatest tools of the Left and here we see it in action. How many leftists have you seen decrying gold investment while taking money from a multi-billionaire who is currently hoarding gold? How many leftists have you seen that actually understand the danger of devaluing our currency, or looming crisis caused by crop shortages? How many on the Left simply don’t understand that America is bankrupt?

The increasingly urbanized Left does think of wealth as something that comes from a paycheck or a government entitlement program, and because they never had to tend a herd or grow a crop they see it as unlimited. The Left does, in fact, think money grows on trees and wealth is generated from vast orchards of the mind. This makes leftists susceptible to dangerous ideas that lead to famine, decline and ultimately collapse. Short a miracle, this summer food prices will skyrocket while the dollar loses at least 10% of its purchasing power and Pandagon will not be helping feed the thousands of people who took their financial advise from political hacks. To me, this is true sadism.