The Oxford Dictionary has chosen “rage bait” as the word of the year 2025. “Rage bait” refers to messages spread on social media to provoke anger, indignation or frustration, such as those videos in which a hairless real estate agent sells you an apartment in … the center of Madrid “perfect for becoming independent”, with its dining table and everything, “for only a million and a half euros”. Or like this tweet that says young people don’t have homes because they spend everything on lawyers. Or like all these xenophobic, sexist or authoritarian comments that we discover there without really knowing why and which suggest that perhaps you are a fascist sleepwalker and that the algorithm knows it or intuits it or favors it. Wasn’t that what “Fight Club” was about?
“Rage bait” could be translated as “anger bait,” an online strategy that seeks to draw attention to what is disgusting, as children do when they cry painlessly or throw things in their hands. These are messages intended to awaken the worst in us: they do not seek acceptance, but rather rejection, the burning response, which helps to spread. Communication scientists discovered a long time ago that hatred arouses more than empathy, at least on social networks, which is why we have the Internet… But the root of “rage bait” predates digitalization. The scandal was already in the news when we only read the paper newspapers. At nineteen, Ruano appeared at the Ateneo de Madrid wearing a bright yellow women’s vest and his hair dyed blonde. It was the first time I was there. In his lecture he recalled that Cervantes was one-armed and that is why he wrote with his feet. He also called Ortega y Gasset cejijunto. Of course, they kicked him out: that was the first step on his path to glory.
Now that inaccuracy is rare in literature, which has become a public relations job, the scandal is created by politicians or their satellites. For example, the Women’s Institute, which made charo the unofficial word of the year thanks to a 19-page report. Let’s open the quotes so the light can come in: “The use of the term ‘charo’ as an insult began to become popular in (…) Forocoches. The first documented report dates back to 2011. At that time, an Internet user described a “charo” as “a single or divorced woman, aged over 30 or 35, generally without children, always bitter and living alone”. On those same dates, another publication described the “charos” as “responsible for administration – local, regional or state – and the educational field, fans of Carmen Machi, Lucía Etxebarría or Maruja Torres, and followers of “El País” and Cadena SER”. It’s one of those insults that ended up being a cross-joke, also self-parodic, like Cayetano. This is why they want to restore anger, which is much more profitable. The report is titled: “Analysis of misogynistic discourse on networks”. An approach to the use of the term “Charo” in the culture of hatred. Divide and you will sell.
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