[sillysaurusx]

Their counterargument would be "How can we have insider knowledge when we have no knowledge?"

I get what you're saying, and it's a valid perspective. But, this gets back to the root of the issue: the older I get, the more it seems like there is a class division in society, and the upper class will do whatever it takes to ensure the lower class stay low.

I hate phrasing it like that, because you can't even say it without sounding like a loon. But think carefully about what you're saying. You're essentially saying that it's dangerous for uneducated, unsophisticated people to band together.

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying, rich people aren't so different, and they are equally dangerous. Moreso, since they have the resources. So I personally find it hard to worry about some people collectively throwing around a few hundreds of millions.

My effort here is to try to convince you -- only you, not whoever's reading this -- to aim your worry "up the chain," so to speak, and to take a hard look at how the rest of the industry acts, and why the structures are in place. It seems false to say that these protection mechanisms are to prevent another 2008 from happening; after all, the 2008 crash wasn't caused by unsophisticated investors.

[IgorPartola]

I think I wasn't clear in what I was saying. I made it sound like them being dangerous was a bad thing. I am placing no value judgement on WSB, just acknowledging that they are on the way to becoming a serious player in this game, with the ability to cause serious damage to other players (hedge funds, public companies, etc.). This is a quality that I already attribute to the hedge funds, the SEC, the big corps, etc. as inherent. Whether WSB becoming a serious player is a good thing or not is really not clear to me. I would expect that it results in a lot of collateral damage, first and foremost to some percentage of retail investors. At the same time, the fact that you can short stocks in the manner that GME got shorted is a much clearer and much more immediate problem, IMO. And I share your view that the haves seem to want to keep the havenots out of their clubhouse and will do all manner of things to keep the separation.

But overall, no I don't think that we should do anything about WSB. The GME situation is at best a symptom of a broken system, it's just that this time hedge funds got (theoretically) hurt not by other hedge funds but by retail investors so everyone noticed. If anything, let's fix the rules of the game so it's closer to fair for the little guy, and fix the SEC to keep those rules properly enforced.