this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
18 points (95.0% liked)

Asklemmy

54927 readers
249 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I keep seeing people call all sorts of things that absolutely should not be “rage” inducing rage bait and I’m confused how this term has evolved, what does it mean when something like a dumb question or a slightly censored meme is now “rage bait”? To me rage bait means something explicitly made to make you made, playing the devils advocate or purposefully edgy and polarizing content but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. To me it it feels like the way woke just means anything I don’t like, is the other side of the coin rage bait is also anything I don’t like I just don’t happen to be a conservative? Sorry if this post is rage bait, I’m genuinely asking and I have a touch of the ‘tism.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Ragebait and engagement farming go hand in hand, the latter especially on the big social media platforms where the ragebaiter stands to gain monetarily with ad revenue.

It's usually some culture war shit like "WATCH: Woman thought she could attack man and he wouldn't fight back". Cue tons of angry comments and arguments. And clicks. Sweet sweet engagement.

Other times it's just obvious bad faith behaviour. Like going into a vegan community and saying "I think veganism is unhealthy and everyone should eat meat".

[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago

Cue. C-U-E. The angry comments aren't lining up and waiting their turn. The angry comments are activated by the ragebait (like a stage cue).