I've tried this point before but it always fails because the argument is, if I may contrive a straw man, that the government can simply machine gun everyone at

I've tried this point before but it always fails because the argument is, if I may contrive a straw man, that the government can simply machine gun everyone at the exits, take all the gold reserves, and cancel the notes. Therefore any government enforced asset is basically as good as gold in this regard because the government can and has (circa great depression) simply cancelled the trustless or bearer properties of gold. Although you're right that this is historically a large element of gold exists it won't be accepted as reasoning, and it's not worth bothering on places like HN.