I’m also halfway sure that dis- and zer- are etymologically related.
The German words for destroy in the Tweet above are nuanced as follows: zerstören: The most general word. Can be used in the most contexts, but implies the use of heavy violence. A zerstörtes thing is not just broken (“kaputt”) but beyond repair and sometimes even recognition. zerschlagen: Also implies violence, but is when used of a thing that is composed of discrete sub-units, and quite often in an abstract sense. An English equivalent is maybe *to disassemble". You can zerschlagen alliances, federations, teams, rebellions and the like. auflösen ‘to dissolve’ is also used in these contexts, but less violent. zerlegen is also ‘to disassemble’, but in an orderly way. Generally, from an entire whole into new parts. It’s what you do with trees to make timber, animals to make pieces of meat, furniture for transport. zersetzen is a more passive process. You can use it as a transitive verb when fungi and bacteria zersetzen organic material, but also intransitive or reflexive when the organic material zersetzt sich. You would translate it as ‘to break down’. zerdrücken: When you press something until it breaks.
zerjoy sounds like one could enjoy something until it breaks. Zerfreuen does not exist (yet), but it sounds very good.
No, decimation is dezimieren and is used when a large part of a group is annihilated. When something is zerstört it is really entirely lost and beyond repair. In opposition to vernichten ‘to annihilate’, there will be debris and rubble left after Zerstörung.
Popular means to zerstören something include the following:
(This list is not exhaustive. You can help to expand it)
Impact (of something on the object to be zerstört)
Impact (of the object to be zerstört on something else)