For one thing, I’d like to point out that I’m not your source of financial advice. I don’t know whether that disclaimer is necessary, but it seems safe. There’s also the fact that what some investors were recently doing might be highly illegal, seeing as it negatively impacts seriously rich people.

I’m not going to pretend that I understand how the stock market works. From what I can tell, a person who just picks random stocks in the hopes that some of them appreciate might actually be better off than someone who gives brokers the opportunity to eat up their profits. That either goes to show how little I know, or that there’s something wrong with the system.

An investment Reddit called WallStreetBets has encouraged users to buy stocks in underperforming businesses, including chain retailers, on the chance that they’ll turn out to be great investments. I can see how that might appeal: if the stocks devalue, they were cheap to begin with, so there’s not much loss, but if they appreciate, that’s great.

However, the concept quickly got out of hand when a number of users decided to collectively purchase stocks in huge quantity, particularly in businesses like GameStop, AMC, and Bed Bath & Beyond. And they just kept going, dogpiling on the stocks, causing them to skyrocket in value.

As a result, hedge funds have been depleted, costing the incredibly wealthy billions of dollars. According to Bloomberg, the matter already reached the President and the Federal Reserve Chairman. It’s gotten to the point that a halt was placed on GameStop stocks.

The media has no idea how to spin it, the establishment has no idea how to handle it aside from halting market activities (which would damage the markets further), and people who have been getting rich off other people’s work can do little but watch in horror as their wealth rapidly sublimates before their eyes.

Just because I don’t understand the stock market doesn’t mean I don’t find this hilarious.

What’s more, the enablers of WallStreetBets seem to know what they’re doing. It appears as though the demolition of hedge funds is their intention, though it’s hard to tell whether that was originally the case. It may very well be a simple case of people getting carried away in a frenzy of collective action. Still, it’s fascinating and terrifying how simple collective action could cause so much damage in such a short time.

Just remember, the elites have ways to make things that are bad for them turn out to instead be costly for people other than themselves. Remember when banks were failing, and they were bailed out with taxpayer dollars?

If 2020 was the year in which the elites did whatever they wanted, and left the commoners to cope with the consequences, then 2021 is quickly shaping up to be the year that the elites find out that the commoners could strike back at them, and could do some serious damage.

Thank you to WallStreetBets, and many investors, for making me laugh harder than I have in a long time. To think that 2021 is just getting started!