I think this is overstating it a bit. The WSB guys have figured out something simple - that in manipulating stocks to take them down via shorts and public state

I think this is overstating it a bit. The WSB guys have figured out something simple - that in manipulating stocks to take them down via shorts and public statements - the institution doing the short is very very vulnerable to a short squeeze, in which everyone might make some money, some people astronomically so. Tesla's current stock price is very much a result of some very public shorts, which led to a series of short squeezes. Now it doesn't fall because the people who pulled the short squeeze can't unwind their trade quickly without loosing everything.