Just reposting a comment I made to another pede. Hopefully this can help others who are completely lost like I was:
A really simple way of explaining this is that a bunch of folks on reddit organized and used a financial strategy (look up how to short a stock) to outsmart the Big Kahunas on Wall Street. They (the Big Kahunas) have lost beaucoup bucks and are now crying to Dementia Joe to fix the problem (which isn't exactly a problem. They are just butthurt that the common folk dared to make money) while accusing the redditors of being white supremacists. That's all I got. This is what I have gleaned. Anyone can correct me if I am wrong.
"Shorting" a stock is when you think a stock will do bad, and so you sell shares you don't actually have by taking out a "loan" of stocks, just like you would of money. It also makes the stock price drop, which has the effect of actually making the stock you picked do bad.
If your stock does bad, you buy back those shares you never had to get back up to zero, pay back your loan with the money you made, and pocket the profit. Big businesses and rich people can use this to attack enemy companies and steal their money.
If your stock does good, you still have to buy back those shares you never had, with money you didn't make, at the now higher stock price. You lose, and you get fucked.
A "short squeeze" is what happens when you get caught shorting. It's the counterattack and the defense to a short. Other people watch you take your loan and drop the stock price, and then they buy that stock at the lower price knowing that you're going to have to repay that loan and bump the price back up. Them buying the stock to stop you also makes the price go up, and makes the business do good. You lose, and you get fucked.
You have to be a big corporation or a rich person to do a short, because it takes a lot of money to launch a meaningful attack. You do not have to be rich to do a squeeze. You just have to hold onto the stock all the way to the end of the short and hope the company survives. Which you buying the stock helps them do. And if they don't survive, you're only out a small amount, not a big amount.
You can fuck up Corporate America by buying Gamestop so they have to pay back more money on their loan than they made. You can squeeze their short and steal their money.
I also wasn't sure what it all meant. Thanks for the explanation!
Squeeze their short and prevent them from stealing your money.
Thank You!!