The nuance this article, and perhaps many commenters on HN, is missing is the latent nihilism powering much of the WSB-GME phenomenon. The same way some stubborn older people can't grasp that a minimum wage job can reliably pay rent and monthly bills, outside observers can't understand that a not insignificant number of these Redditors are willing to financially self immolate to just be given the chance to help pound billion-dollar firms to dust. Take a tour of these WSB threads, and underneath the party atmosphere of self-deprecating humor/memes/irrational hope, is a thick sense of contempt and vengeance at hedge funds and big players of the financial market. Some of the hate is brought to the surface, for example in the recollections of the collapse of '08 and how peoples' families and futures were reduced to near nothing.