Political posts barely make it past the moderators, let alone political extremism, even with the recent massive influx of users. Although the subreddit’s controversial ex-founder - who was banned from the group for violating community rules himself - has accused moderators of racism off-site, after a week and dozens of hours spent on the forum, I haven’t seen any evidence of hate speech or alt-right imagery. The users I spoke to were quick to point out that the group’s dynamics have changed at light speed over the past two weeks.įor anyone wondering whether WSB is part of the alt-right or a harbor for neo-Nazis, it doesn’t appear that way. There is a wide spectrum of opinions, beliefs, and experiences.
No group is a monolith, especially one of this size. I spoke with a dozen people, from WallStreetBets members to professors to human behavior analysts, to try to understand what makes up the unique culture of WSB and what the group might mean for society at large. Oh, and there was that little stock rally. The news coverage is both constant and global. Entrepreneurial heavyweights like Chamath Palihapitiya, Elon Musk, and Mark Cuban have stood up for WSB (Cuban even did a pep talk AskMeAnything in the subreddit on Tuesday morning). So far, followers have created two original songs and bought emoji-covered billboards across the country touting their stock picks. The group’s potential influence is enormous. In the joke, a manchild relies on his mom for everything, throws tantrums, and is rewarded for good behavior with “Good Boy Points” (GBP), which he redeems for his favorite food: chicken tenders, a.k.a. Commenters call themselves “degenerates” or “apes.” Reddit posts hype up how many “tendies” a person will get from their investments, a phrase that comes from old 4chan greentext stories about manchildren living in their mom’s basement.
They insult the “paper hands” who crumple and sell their shares at the first taste of money or scary drops.
Strings of rocket emojis signify how the group wants to send GME’s price “to the moon.” Users encourage each other to have “diamond hands” (represented in emojis, of course), a riff on the strength of diamonds and a user’s strength to last through big market swings. Tendies, rocket ships, diamond hands - this is the language of WallStreetBets (WSB), the white-hot subreddit powering the GameStop (GME) frenzy on the stock market. And, at first glance, they’re speaking a foreign language. With 8 million members - as of this writing, and the group is still growing - it’s as if 1 in every 40 Americans is standing in a giant room talking. It’s hard to overstate how big the WallStreetBets group has gotten.
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