One of the funniest stories in my lifetime broke yesterday when it was revealed that a group of users on the sub-Reddit r/WallStreetBets had victimized a high-speed hedge fund, nearly driving it into bankruptcy. That is, if we can call a predatory hedge fund that creates wealth for its inner circle and misery for everything it touches a victim, the victim was Melvin Capital. The perpetrators were basically the same type of high-functioning…well…they call themselves “autists,” who totally beclowned Shia LaBeouf several times a few years ago (read Shia LaBeouf’s Trump Protest Gets Pwned By 4chan.

Apparently, it came to their attention that Melvin Capital was conducting a large operation to “short sell” the on-the-rocks retailer Game Stop. That is, they were borrowing shares of the stock to sell so to drive down the price of the stock; then, if the plan had succeeded, they would buy back the cheap stock, return it to the owner, and pocket the difference. I’m a capitalist, but I really loathe people who willfully destroy companies and employees’ livelihood for no other reason than a dog licks his testicles.

The fun happened when the r/WallStreetBets crew bought up all the shares they could find and refused to sell. This forced Melvin Capital into the position of having to borrow money to buy back stock they didn’t own so they could return it to its owners. (Yes, I know there are technical problems with my explanation, but I’m an infantryman from Southside Virginia, so cut me a little slack).

In something like an outtake from the Wizard of Oz, the elites banded together to save Melvin Capital (see The Elites Move to Save the Hedge Funders from Reddit and People Have Thoughts) because if the normies see the Wizard for what he is, then they might laugh at him and realize he’s really not a MasterOfTheUniverse™ and ignore him in the future. So trading on some stocks was suspended, and there were rumblings of an SEC investigation of private individuals who had the temerity to wear neck-beards and soiled undies instead of Brioni suits while playing shenanigans on the stock market. They were not impressed (read Jen Psaki’s Pathetic Response to the Reddit Hedge Fund Story and Redditors’ Glorious Response to the SEC).

The Redditors have delivered their terms to the SEC 😂 pic.twitter.com/7wkB2Me09A

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) January 27, 2021

Now, in short order, the sub-Reddit was made inaccessible to visitors and, according to a statement by Discord, the company that provides the service the r/WallStreetBets crew uses, they have shut them down.

The server has been on our Trust & Safety team’s radar for some time due to occasional content that violates our Community Guidelines, including hate speech, glorifying violence, and spreading misinformation. Over the past few months, we have issued multiple warnings to the server admin.

Today, we decided to remove the server and its owner from Discord for continuing to allow hateful and discriminatory content after repeated warnings.

To be clear, we did not ban this server due to financial fraud related to GameStop or other stocks. Discord welcomes a broad variety of personal finance discussions, from investment clubs and day traders to college students and professional financial advisors. We are monitoring this situation and in the event there are allegations of illegal activities, we will cooperate with authorities as appropriate.

Sure. This has nothing to do with a bunch of guys with only a tangential relationship to society making a mockery of self-proclaimed members of our self-proclaimed elite. Nothing at all.

it really is quite a remarkable coincidence that WallStreetBets just happened to have just enough "hate speech" to get shut down by Discord at exactly the moment when Wall Street would have preferred to have it shut down https://t.co/gwvb8DEG4q

— PoliMath (@politicalmath) January 27, 2021

This is just another example of the tech oligarchs getting together and deciding what everyday people can say. These people don’t give a damn about your safety or anything else; if you’ve been on social media long enough, you’ve learned that death threats and doxing only matter if it happens to the right person (did I tell you about the time I got suspended from Twitter for telling some skinful of gravy who’d just gotten punted from BuzzFeed “News” to “learn to code?”). My gut feeling is that time is running out on these people. Free people will not put up with this nonsense indefinitely because they shouldn’t and because they can’t and remain free people.