The Age of Breach: Gamestop, Wokeism and The Capitol Riot

When two seas meet, vast waves rise. As we watch the Gamestop story play out, we’re witnessing a movement birthed on the internet crashing into an established institution. Neither will be the same once it’s over.

It’s the latest example of a phenomenon that may come to define the age we live in: Breach. Breach is what happens when a collective intelligence birthed online bursts into physical world and permanently changes its foundations.

If you aren’t familiar with the Gamestop story, a very simplified summary is that a group of amateur investors on a Reddit thread called r/WallStreetBets have been working together to drive up the stock price of US retailer Gamestop. In doing so, they have forced established hedge funds, who had bet the price would go down, to lose billions of dollars. There are so many facets to it; it’s a David & Goliath narrative, with regular people hitting back at Wall Street at last. It’s hilarious. It’s satisfying. It’s an example of technological disruption caused by apps like Robinhood that have democratised stock trading.

But it is also much more. We’re used to technological disruption, but Breach is different. It’s a difference you can’t hold it in your hands, but one you feel in the air. It’s defined by an eruption of pent up emotion and imagination from the internet…