Thank you for linking this. IMHO the reddit thread is useless (I'm looking for older evidence of this term) but the linked post from seekingalpha is from 2014:

https://seekingalpha-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/seekingalpha...

The description of a short ladder attack from 2014 strongly implies that the short party is attemping to manipulate a stock from its prevailing fundamental value. There is a key difference in that GME's fundamental value is nowhere near the $300+ range that it was trading it on Thursday!

There need not be a misinformation campaign or "attack" for well-capitalized fundamental traders to see opportunity to sell into this. Especially after seeing the capital crunch nailing retail brokers.