Ever since Vanguard started there has been a constant barrage of anti index fund propaganda in the US. One of the early slurs was that index funds were communi

Ever since Vanguard started there has been a constant barrage of anti index fund propaganda in the US. One of the early slurs was that index funds were communism (pretty daft, but probably effective in the US). The latest is this scaremongering "what if all investment were into index funds" (answered several times in this thread). From the perspective of index fund advocates, unsophisticated investors are systematically getting ripped off and the daft propaganda only adds to the offense. This is probably why you're picking up an aggressive preachy vibe from advocates. The empirical data is however unambiguous and there is now a lot of it.