“Ragebaiting”, which involves deliberately posting incendiary content online to draw engagement, was Collins Dictionary’s 2025 word of the year.
Another frustrating online habit, which sometimes falls under “ragebait”, is “sealioning.”
The method, outlined in Harvard’s essay collection Perspectives of Harmful Speech Online, “fuses persistent questioning – often about basic information, information on easily found elsewhere, or unrelated or tangential points – with a loudly-insisted-upon commitment to reasonable debate.”
It is often used in response to content about, e.g., social justice and global warming<...
English (US)