The image is a reddit post with the following text (automatically transcribed):
I remember I got into an argument on reddit awhile ago with a person over Italian food. It got to the point they were following me into other subs to harass me. I clicked on their profile to block them and their most recent post was them drinking their own piss on r/piss. At that moment I realized I had spent so much pointless time arguing about the taste of food with someone who drinks their own piss as a hobby. This site is a shit hole.
Maybe it was just an AI bot trying ti see if it could waste your time. I have noticed this on a few occasions where a “person” was being rude and trying to get a reaction, but when you look at their history you see hints of AI chat bot. Why anyone would do this is beyond me…maybe research or just a way to mess with people. Something to think about the next time you get into it with someone or something on the Internet.
I remember seeing some mean comments on my country’s subreddit about how bad the country is, only to discover that the poster of those comments seemed to live in three places at once and shitting on all of them.
That happened all the time in my smallish city sub I used to frequent. It was small enough crap like that would get banned quickly. You’d just find them stirring every hot topic pot you could find in every city sub for our state and also like 5 other states, just 24/7 “arguing” aka spouting talking points or hit and run posts. Then occasionally a random post in /r/mlb
The Washington DC sub always had people who very likely had nothing to do with the city at all. Especially when there were demonstrations going on.
But that can happen here on Lemmy too. It may not have yet, but if it attracts enough attention it will.
It “drives engagement.” The old marketing trope that sex sells has given way to rage sells. Piss people off, get them involved in a pointless internet debate, push that dopamine button in your brain because you’re right and that asshole is wrong and this is why, and boom, another social media addict. Oh hey what’s this, a funny meme? Sure I’ll click that and maybe reply in that thread too…
It’s super effective.
You are so right. It drives engagement big time. I wonder how many rage inducing comments are just bots trying to engage you? I read recently that 67% of Internet traffic is bots and growing. No idea if that is correct, but surely the actual number is on the rise with no signs is stopping. Maybe 99% of all rage battles online will be between two chatbots. Ahahahaha