Lonely, angry, eager to make history: Online mobs are likely to remain a dangerous reality

[DonViejo]

The chaos of WallStreetBets and the QAnon-fueled storming of the U.S. Capitol showcased the reality-shaping power of Internet communities. Who’s supposed to stop them when they go too far?

By Drew Harwell
Feb. 17, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. EST

When the stock market opened one morning last month, Jake was working a job he hated inside a cavernous Amazon fulfillment center, trying desperately to spend some of the $1,452.45 in his checking account on shares of a failing chain of video game stores.

At home alone in Des Moines, he had immersed himself in the euphoria of WallStreetBets, the raucous Reddit forum where followers were cheering one another toward a leap of faith: A mass buy of GameStop stock, they thought, would decimate hedge funds and earn them life-changing cash.

Straining for an Internet signal inside a warehouse where he often felt like a “nobody,” Jake dashed out an order on his iPhone’s Robinhood app, feeling like he’d made history. “It was palpable, this energy: We were an Internet forum taking on Wall Street,” said Jake, who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his first name for fear it could affect his job.

GameStop’s share price has since plunged to half of what Jake paid, but he said he still feels like he’s formed a special bond with online strangers he’ll never meet: Together, they had staged a rebellion against the people who had looked down on him his entire life.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/02/17/online-mobs-wallstreetbets-qanon/

[BeerBarrelPolka]

1. What?

"Together, they had staged a rebellion against the people who had looked down on him his entire life."

Hate to break it to you Jake from Funny Farm, but these Wall St. people do not even know you exist.

[sop]

2. Jake should join a real "community" and vote to unionize Amazon's "fulfillment centers."

Forming that "special bond" of collective bargaining with his fellow wage slave "nobodies" would provide him that "palpable energy" he so desires. It's the only way Bezos and the Wall Street crowd will take you seriously, Jake.