Don’t take the (rage) bait!
The Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year for 2025 says a lot about all of us right now.
The word of the year is actually two words, “rage bait.” You know what it is even if you do not use the phrase. It is content, usually online, designed to irritate you so much that you click on the post, maybe you even share it and comment about it, which increases the chatter about the post. That is exactly what it is designed to do.
The goal is not to inform, enlighten or inspire. It is to enrage.
Why does it work? Because when you get angry or frustrated, your ability to reason or simply be curious erodes. A few years ago, when Facebook introduced “emoticons,” the little reactions like a smiley face or a heart, it also included a red angry face as a reaction too. And Facebook found that users that chose the angry emoji also commented and shared the post more often than those who liked the post. So people who yearn for more traffic on social media have learned that if they can irritate you, you are more likely to read, share and comment than if they please or calm you.
In fact, when Facebook first introduced the angry emoji, it found that the angry face promoted engagement five times greater than any other reaction.(1)
Rage baiting is not just on social media. It includes things people say to get a rise out of the people around them. It is not light-hearted kidding or teasing. Rage baiting is a verbal poke in the arm about politics. It is a sentence offered as a surgical strike to pry open personal insecurity. It is a provocation just sufficient to tick off another person. Success is measured in degrees of outrage.
And you wonder why gathering with people on the holidays gives you heartburn before the dinner is served.
Contrast that with the way of Jesus. I think Roman soldiers rage baited Jews by striking them in the face or making them carry their equipment for a mile. Rather than striking back, Jesus instructs his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” (Matthew 5:38-41 NRSVUE)
The call to peace, to resist retaliation, and to love others no matter how they treat us is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. This is one reason we know Jesus as “The Prince of Peace.” He is teaching us that it is easy to be angry and hateful. We can even grow to enjoy making other people angry. It is more difficult to be benevolent and forbearing, but when such virtues become our behaviors, the world becomes kinder and more hopeful. In Jesus’ view, strength is measured in units of love rather than words of contempt. People flourish when anger diminishes and love overflows.
Think about that during these weeks of Advent. When Advent started it was a season to consider whether your life was in conformity to the way of Jesus. In the fourth century, Advent was a time when believers fasted and prayed. Converts learned about the faith and prepared for baptism and for the feast of Christ’s birth or Epiphany. Advent can be a time of spiritual preparation for us as well. It can be a season where we fast from behaviors common in our society and migrate to the way of Christ. A critical lesson this Advent is to neither provoke nor engage in the provocation of another.
Jesus is telling us not to take the “rage bait” even if it is all the rage.
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(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/26/facebook-angry-emoji-algorithm/