The Politics of the GameStop Saga
And the Revenge of the Retail Trader
Young men and boys all over the world have been in a non-stop fight with one of the largest hedge funds in the world. Melvin Capital, seemingly lost more than three billion dollars fighting the young trades.
Reddit's “WallStreetBets” are still in the trenches claiming this is only the beginning.
(…)boys and young men, techy and geeky, risking their life savings to make a quick buck during a boring lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Why now
Many twenty and thirty-somethings are experiencing their second recession since the financial meltdown of 2007–2008, and contentious feelings of capitalism and financial markets are growing.
Few seem to have forgotten the Wall Street bail out by taxpayers after the global economy was destabilised due to excessive and unregulated greed.
Revenge of the Geeks
Now, the same people are building the larger economic (r)evolution. Within decentralised finance of DEFI, young tech entrepreneurs are building bank infrastructure for lending and borrowing money all without banks or even governments.
When the Arab Spring of 2011 ignited calls for emancipation and democracy across the Arab world, researchers and politicians were taken by surprise. Are we now seeing the coming revolution's equivalent to when Mohamed Bouazizi self-ignited to spur the Arab uprisings?
The Politics of the GameStop saga
The WallStreetBets and DEFI-phenomenon is often portrayed as an apolitical movement, of boys and young men, techy and geeky, risking their life savings to make a quick buck during a boring lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What seems to be overlooked, however, is the widespread anger and resentment within the movement. Feelings of revenge aimed at bringing down the financial elites, as well as the politicians who enabled Wall Street to wreak havoc on the diminishing American middle class.
Similar to the aftermath of the Great Recession, young people are once again the one's hit the hardest.
The job market for graduates is perhaps even worse today than it was at the height of the recession. The price for education has skyrocketed, leaving many with few ways to repay their student loans. Even more so when wages have been stagnating across the board since the 1970s, while CEO pay is up more than 80% since 2010.
Feelings of hopelessness and experiences of meaningless, are brewing in young men across the globe.
Misplaced hate, however, can lead young people down the wrong path
Anger towards establishment and financial elites can easily transition into antisemitic rhetoric.
Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel Plotkin said Reddit traders behind the meme stock frenzy targeted him with anti-semitic attacks.
Some are drawn to conspiracy theories tying finance actors and the state of the economy to Jews and Zionism. The misbelief that Jews control the economy via the Federal Reserve, or operate politics behind the scenes is far from new. In certain online communities the same beliefs take on a new form. For example, in a memetic form that is more attractive to young people.
Feelings of hopelessness and experiences of meaningless, are brewing in young men across the globe. The outcome may be more extremism, both in the US and abroad.
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Fringe Research Network is an independent research group based in Oslo, Norway. We seek to present academic research on online mobilisation and extremist communities to a broader audience.
