How the Gamestop Saga can become a Prelude to Occupy Wall Street Part 2

Ever since I’ve started this rebooting of my personal blog, I’ve tried to avoid hit pieces of what is the big conversation of the moment, wanting to spend more time on what I want to discuss and dive a little deeper and not resort to instantaneous reactions. But every once in a while, we come along a story that’s so wild, so crazy, and such a breath of fresh air in the fight against the problems plaguing the United States, I can’t help but instantly react and share my thoughts about it.

Yep, time to talk about Gamestop.

I’m not going into specific details about what has transpired, since news media, other writers and video essayists and YouTubers will undoubtedly be better as describing the incident at hand than I ever could. What I do want to focus on is how this particular moment of wall street chaos is essentially some of the endgame we were seeking when a particular movement during the Obama administration was taking place. Watching hedge fund companies cry foul and fall apart over the Gamestop stock surge, watching billionaires and stock market experts screaming bloody murder on live television, witnessing analysts that used to enjoy the unregulated shenanigans until the common folk started capitalizing on it is such a sweet, special feeling. This is a feeling we never got to experience back in 2011-2012 under Occupy Wall Street.

Their screams even made it to the Biden administration today, who (smartly) had nothing to say on the matter. After all, this has all been legal, and this has all been playing by the same rules Wall Street operates on. Billionaires are watching small fry investors destroying them at their own game, on their own turf, by their own rules; which is making them angry and nervous---as if we’ve collectively finally figured it all out.

The results of potential bankruptcies and emergency bailouts of giant companies whose profits relies on their gambling on failures is precisely what we wanted back in 2011. Back during the first Obama term, the administration received a lot of criticism for barely punishing the Wall Street pundits and hedge fund companies that greatly contributed to the collapse of the housing market and eventual destruction of the American economy overall. The United States wasn’t hit with a direct tragedy (unless you count the existence of a George W. Bush administration as a tragedy), there wasn’t any sort of massive shortage that had been going on, and the economy of the country was strong even if more and more Americans weren’t feeling the financial success---and were unknowingly on a bubble ready to burst and wreck everything. The entire crash can be attributed primarily to the money-hungry monsters over at New York for a plethora of irresponsibility that led to Obama inheriting the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Yet despite all this, not much was done to punish or even regulate the activity that had led to the downward spiral, led to the epic job losses and epic financial shrinkage of the majority. According to the book/film The Big Short, only one person was ever convicted for the activity that led to the economic tragedies back in 2008. So, Occupy Wall Street was formed as a counter to demand responsibility for the damage done by the stock market and those who greatly invest in it. I was a strong supporter at first, but I felt like it all fizzled before it could even take off. The main message was muddled, the support was lacking, there was minimal organization, and ultimately became a sort of joke in the news media and late night comedy circles as it appeared people were just standing around waiting for someone to take the next essential step.

Slogans were messy, the race aspects of economic inequality were completely ignored, anti-Semitism poisoned the message (how?!?!), and there was no cohesive demand or request made to actually combat the activities that led to the economic collapse. It was a good idea, very poorly executed, even if it eventually led to more successful movements like increasing minimum wage to $15. What has happened this week however could very well be the start of a sequel to the failed movement, one that could potentially be so much more successful that it would create positive results within the year.

This all depends on how far the Wall Street Reddit crew and their online support wants to take this stock market financial adventure and all the momentum that has swung in their favor.

What if Gamestop and AMC is just the beginning? What if the stock internet, led by Reddit and supported by many within the online investing (and trolling) circles picks and chooses collectively what stocks to rapidly inflate and what stocks to fully ignore and abandon? What if we can spread messages and memes trashing certain toxic stocks (someone check if Goya is a stock) as well as putting the spotlight on others (someone check if Ben and Jerry is a stock)? What if there’s more and even deeper research into what else the hedge fund companies are gambling and rallying against, and then rallying around every single company that’s meant to fail according to their evil eyes?

Going to more sinister territory, what if within the core circle of internet investors, we decide to completely boycott certain industries to drive their prices and profits significantly down? What if we decide to tackle companies that we’ve felt has taken advantage of us during the pandemic? Today, more than ever, we can make boycotts, protests, and mass purchases go viral extremely quickly and spread out the message so dramatically that it becomes untraceable for the very chance that the corporate victims seek justice. More importantly, when Wall Street decides to fight back (and probably fight dirty), strong organization will be needed to survive whatever hurdles get thrown our way.

Back in 2011, the power of the internet was obvious but nowhere near modern day standards. We didn’t have peak Twitter, we didn’t have Reddit at full strength, we didn’t have the stock trading apps like Robin Hood and even CashApp providing everybody the ability to make a little extra money on the side without all the jargon and complexities. There are free communicative apps left and right that can spread the message, that can allow people as far away as Alaska contribute to the movement. Today, thanks to the Gamestop controversies, we’ve essentially unveiled the power of the little people banding together to make some heavy damage—and unveiled just how vulnerable Wall Street can be to a powerful anti-movement. In the span of a month, multiple hedge fund companies lost billions and were brought down to their knees in debt. What could we accomplish with twelve months of sustained anarchy?

In the midst of this tragic, deadly, and devastating pandemic, Wall Street has profited heavily, and so have most of the major corporations within the country. We even see politicians using insider secrets to make some additional money. Revenge is imminent, and what has happened to Gamestop is because of the astronomical backlash against those profiting well off our pain. And to be honest, I don’t see any end in sight of the bottom 90% of the country battling back. WallStreetBets on Reddit doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, they’ve gone from being stock market trolls into unexpected Robin Hood-esque heroes in this wild story. Their popularity has grown tenfold, and as a result their army of fighters against the hedge fund companies has also dramatically increased.

This unleashed potential with proper organization can spend the entirety of the year wreaking havoc and having their way with hedge fund companies and the very same billionaires that have historically refused to accept regulating the stock market in the first place. We can expand upon this base battle against Wall Street and transform it into some gigantic, something truly revolutionary, and something so big that it would scare all of the billionaires that rely on the market, from those in New York all the way to those in Silicon Valley. On top of that, the disorganized chaos makes it much harder for punishment to even occur---which is the biggest positive from all this. There is no one person who is in charge, there isn’t a main figure to pin the movement on; therefore there is no target for Wall Street or the Biden Administration if they decide to rev up their investigating and attempts to put a stop to this wild uprising.

I for one am gleefully rooting for this upheaval against hedge funds to last for as long as possible. A very fun, but admittingly very dangerous game is being played and even though the consequences can be dire, we’re also seeing multiple cases of people investing small and ending up with enough money to resolve some of their financial obstacles in the midst of this pandemic and economic spiral. Best of all, the victims are not the common folk, the victims are those who can afford the heavy hits, and those who make a living being economic vultures.

There was one story about one Redditor deciding to sell even though the movement demands for everyone to hang on to their rebel shares because his dog needed surgery and he finally had the money to do it. Underneath the wilderness of stock market anarchy are good endings for people in financial hardships. Let’s also not forget that Gamestop can be a good gaming shop alternative to the behemoth known as Amazon, a company so big that its owner can end global hunger and still remain one of the richest men in the history of the world. Plus, can any company that now employs Reggie Fils-Amie actually be bad?

I’m not here to demand or even request for WallStreetBets and the rabid supporters to expand their battle to include mass boycotts and essentially carry the mantle and create a true Occupy Wall Street 2. What I AM saying, is that we can use this moment to really make some noise, if the meme stock market army is up to the task at hand. A second Occupy Wall Street under these circumstances and ongoing organization can unleash devastating results to the stock industry, while simultaneously distributing untapped finances to the masses as opposed to millionaires and billionaires with connections and the support of the industry they dominate. While waiting for our financial institutions to improve after decades of disaster, we can directly go to the source and nab some of the money for ourselves. How deep this goes is entirely up to us, but the potential to truly turn some heads is the strongest it has ever been.

Hold the line, I’m rooting for all of you…and not just because I have some stock in AMC……