Leave The Rage Bait Dangling

Imagine a piece of bait dangling in the water. A passing fish sees it. What a stroke of luck to stumble upon a free, unsuspecting meal.

Believing it has found prey, it strikes, convinced it has the power and is acting on its own terms.

Only after the hook pierces through does the reality set in. This fish was the target rather than the predator. It got caught in a trap that took advantage of its reactive instinct.

In this episode, I talk about how leaving it there can be an act of gentle rebellion. Not in terms of setting traps, but in terms of letting the bait dangle.

https://youtu.be/5T44fux-rX8

“Leave it there” is our current exploration theme in The Haven. As I reflected on this idea of bait and tempting action, I realised there are two sides to it. There is the bait that is left there in the hope we bite. And there is what we can do when we engage our critical thinking and cultivate a sense of indifference to the attention and engagement economy that so desperately needs us to react.

The Hook Hidden Inside Rage Bait

We see this everywhere.

I often think about the Jaguar advert that caused such a massive stir online. The internet absolutely erupted. Thousands of people rushed to their keyboards to make videos rejecting it, mocking it, asking where the car was, and lamenting the death of the company. It was interesting to notice how people thought they were being edgy by standing up to corporate culture in this way.

But they performed exactly as predicted. They had bitten down on the hook, carefully prepared by the chefs in the Jaguar marketing kitchen.

Reacting predictably isn’t necessarily the act of resistance we imagine it to be. It isn’t a display of strength. In fact, it’s often compliance with what the data would expect us to do.

Rage bait seeks to cash in on our good faith and our sensitivity to injustice, unfairness, and ignorance. It is an energy vampire that leaves a bitter taste in our mouths, not only robbing us of time to create, contribute, and bring more beautiful things into the world, but also tainting those things with that flavour.

Shifting our relationship with rage bait has a greater potential reach than the respite we might experience in the moment.

The Attention Economy Wants Us to React

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han writes about the shift towards an “achievement society“. We are no longer controlled primarily by an external authority telling us what we should do in order to gain favour. Instead, Han argues, that pressure has moved inwards.

Power now operates through the pressure of the “endless can”.

There are abundant opportunities and invitations to work without limits, hustle harder, outpace the competition, and stay ahead of the game. A never-ending, asymptotic game, where the end we think we’re closing in on remains forever just out of reach.

And the person cracking the whip is inside us. The super-egoic injunction to forever do more than you’re currently doing.

Online clout chasers and rage baiters are part of this ecosystem. Not necessarily as evil masterminds, but as people trapped in an endless demand for attention. Constantly pressured to exploit themselves and stay visible, whatever the cost to others and to society as a whole.

The platform designers, however well-intentioned they may have been at the start, consistently end up building digital arenas based on algorithms that turn us against one another (and ourselves). Whether directly or indirectly, they stir strong emotions that can be turned into profit.

Once attention becomes the currency, people begin competing for it in whatever ways work best.

When Defiance Becomes Compliance

There is a type of rage bait (trolling, poking the bear, questioning authority) that seems to me a very natural expression of youth. To rebel and rail against society as a way to distinguish one’s own subjectivity.

But the mechanics of capitalism have a way of commodifying rebellion. It folds attempts to rebel, especially online, back into