It is somewhat important to describe how these people are not acting rationally or individually and how these internet groups can group together to have very powerful and unusual effects.
Lots of participants understand what they are doing and are achieving their stated goals (causing chaos). There’s nothing internally inconsistent or irrational about the behaviour to the individuals.
Maybe it’s irrational if you transpose your own form of rationality to others.
I'm sure there's some people who are just successfully aiming to cause chaos. But 3 of my closest friends are in on Gamestop now, and each of them expects they're going to exit at $1000+ and make bank. So in the absence of hard data (which I have no idea how we'd collect) I kinda have to assume that making money is a big motivating factor for people.
"groups can group together to have very powerful and unusual effects."
Yes, like you know start political parties, fight for independance, or whatever. I fail to see why it continues to facinate people that WSB is just as valid an organisation as Greenpeace or IBM.
Not mentioning reddit hides information. News companies should aim to tell us as much as possible what is actually going on. And the reality is the current situation is heavily tied to a specific group on reddit.
People are also directly visiting the subreddit and they will struggle to understand what is going on which is why the news tries to provide translations and explanations.
> News companies should aim to tell us as much as possible what is actually going on.
Key phrase: "what is actually going on". The humor and manner of speech of that subreddit has nothing to do with what is actually going on. It's just superfluous details intended to discredit them without having to explain what is actually going on.
