Once there was something incredibly rare: a truly honest place on the internet. Despicable, crude, ill-advised, dangerous, unhealthy, and extremely toxic, yes, all of this is true. But it was honest. And it was beautiful. The subreddit Wallstreetbets gained prominence during the GameStop stock fiasco of 2020-2021, but it was much more than that. It is a stock trading forum, on paper, but in practice it is (or was) a truly wretched hive of scum and villainy. Where fortunes were made or lost depending on what side of a fence a dog peed on. Where one could completely destroy their financial future in an afternoon. Or, maybe win and get rich, who knows? In short: r/wallstreetbets was incredible. Today we're taking a look at that wretched hive of scum and villainy and how it relates to the buttoned up world of finance as a whole, and asking what if Wallstreetbets isn't actually that different from, you know, the people managing your retirement account?

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