Taking the rage bait

You're feeding the trolls

I have to start by recognising the irony of this email.

The whole newsletter is going to be about how we need to stop giving attention to certain topics or people, and by writing this I am thereby giving them attention. I’ll do my best to be as specific as possible without actually giving anyone airtime.

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Last week, we saw Donald Trump win his second US Presidential Election. The fallout of the victory has brought with it a torrent of horrible social media posts from right-wing male ‘influencers’ - I’m sure you’ve all seen screenshots of “your body, my choice,” etc.

And while I don’t believe anyone should be ‘getting away’ with this rhetoric, I wanted to pose the question of… what do we gain from sharing it?

Rage bait is a self-explanatory term describing content that is posted for the specific aim of inciting anger from its audience.

Men like Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes are experts at this. They purposefully post inflammatory content, knowing fine well that this will blow up and go viral. I expect many of those quote-tweetings these incendiary posts are not in agreement with the subjects, simply sharing to make a point like: “Look at this shit!”

In the last week, I’ve seen female influencers stitch together responses to the posts made by these men. I get it. It’s upsetting to know there is a man with complete disregard for female bodily autonomy in the most powerful seat in the world. And even more upsetting to see people overjoyed by that turn of events.

But I can’t help but think when we share, react or stitch these posts/videos… are we not giving them what they want?

Who would Andrew Tate be if we didn’t talk about him? Nobody.

It’s kind of like how Colin Robinson, the energy vampire in What We Do In The Shadows, gains power from his human peers’ distress, sadness and anger. He is literally a vampire of negative emotion.

Like Tate, Fuentes is a nobody. A pathetic worm of a man who sits in front of his screen rambling on about whatever ill-informed nonsense dominates his mind that week.

I’d argue many of you didn’t even know who Fuentes was before his tweeting tirade last week.

So, has he gained popularity because right-wing politics are in the White House? Or is he simply sucking the proverbial blood from the necks of angry white women reposting his trolling comments?

Don’t misunderstand me. Women are not to blame here. But there’s no denying that we are giving them power - you’ve heard the phrase “don’t feed the trolls.”

This sparks a wider discussion: how we can protect ourselves without living in an echo chamber? Many of the world’s biggest podcasts are happy to platform anyone who gets them listeners. You could argue that having someone as a guest on a podcast does not condone their views, but you can't deny that it draws more attention to them.

It's a conundrum I don't have an answer for, but my gut feeling is that we shouldn't put our morals aside for more views, clicks or listens.

I don't really care what Boris Johnson has to say to Steven Bartlett on Diary of a CEO. This is a man who partied while people died without their loved ones by their sides. Platforming this dickhead benefits no one but Bartlett and his advertisers - and Johnson trying to shill his book I wouldn't even wipe my arse with (I have a bum gun, anyway).

When I see a tweet (or a retweet) or a podcast episode featuring a waste of space like those I mentioned above, I always ask: who's winning here?

It's as simple as this. The longer you stay on social media platforms, the more money they make. It's in their best interests that you dwell and engage in the comments section, hence the meteoric rise of rage bait.

It's safe to assume you'll never convert someone to your views on Twitter. But you will put more money in Elon Musk’s pocket. Something that's absolutely not worth your time or energy, in my opinion.

So, what can we do?

If you’re outraged, like me, you can start by ignoring insignificant and powerless idiots online. Don’t share. Block and move on. Leave Twitter altogether like I did last year.

Next, turn your attention to positive and lasting change.

Donate to charities that support areas in which the new US government will fail: female healthcare, Palestine aid, and environmental causes, to name but a few.

Support content creators who align with your values. Educate yourself with topics outside of your world. Admit when you're wrong. It's okay to change your mind.

Let me get this straight. Don’t stop being angry. I am absolutely furious. But think about who you are directing your anger towards and what that anger will actually do. If you’re angry at some incel in his mam’s basement, there’s no point. He has no power, only the power that you are giving him.

Be angry at the people in charge. Be angry at those who voted. Be angry at those whispering in the President’s ear. Be angry at everything that truly matters, and that can make real-lasting change.

Don’t waste energy on feeding the trolls. Please.

Last Thursday, I went to the book launch of Eliza Clark’s new short story collection, She’s Always Hungry. It was so fun to hear how a North East author has achieved such success, and I’ve already started devouring the new work. Look at how pretty this hardcover edition is!

Other things I’ve also enjoyed this week:

📽️ Small Things Like These - I saw this adaption of the beautiful Claire Keegan novel at the cinema and truly adored it. Cillian Murphy embodied Bill Furlong, a quiet and hardworking man, who discovers the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries.

📽️Heretic - I also went to see A24’s latest horror, starring Hugh Grant and Sophie Thatcher, about two Mormon missionaries who are actually invited into a strange man’s house. I found it a little underwhelming, but interesting to hear what others thought.

📚Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck - A dark, allegorical tale of an abusive relationship spanning the final decade of the Berlin Wall. Fellow bookworm

Ed Callow

kindly explained to me how this is a clever metaphor for the old and new in East Germany as the West took hold. Well worth reading if you want to learn more about this timeperiod.

See you next week,

Ellen x

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If you like the audio version of this newsletter, you can listen to them all over on Spotify. Here’s last week’s:

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💌 About this email

I’m Ellen, and I write about mental health for the chronically online. I am a freelance copywriter, strategist and web designer, and I work from home with my husband, Craig, at Content By The Sea. We have two rescue greyhounds, Potter and Harmony, and a toddler.

I started this newsletter in March 2020 and have sent over 200(!) emails; currently, I have over 1,200 subscribers. I write about a wide variety of topics, including diet culture, my love of running, jealousy, my life falling apart, mam guilt, and this dystopian world we all live in.

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