I don’t think it’s about that at all. If you follow the subreddit at all, you’d see that WSB investors have been losing immense amounts for a long time now.

I think the primary thing that baffles the more traditional investing establishment is how irrational WSB investors actually are.

So much this. I cut my teeth in commods which are still very much two way markets.

But the equity crowd hasn't seen any real volatility until March of last year and the Fed promptly stepped up to backstop the entire regime.

I have friends who own TQQQ like it's dumb not to...and they're right.

I think there have always been potential "investors" that never really lost money because they were never investors in the first place. Lots of Robinhood, r/wsb users/members are 1st time traders because Robinhood significantly lower the barrier to entry for investing, and they don't feel as alone and scary once found an online community similar to themselves.