Conflict Entrepreneurs
Motte and Baileys, and Scissor Statements and Flaming Stawmen are favorite techniques of Conflict Entrepreneurs, aka Line Steppers. You probably know the type. Conflict Entrepreneurs exploit social, cultural, or political fault lines. They inject outrageous content into these spaces to intensify emotions and polarize the discourse. This can look like spreading disinformation, incendiary memes and other rhetorical techniques that attempt to divide audiences. Sometimes they do it for personal gain, but sometimes it’s just about spreading chaos.
The old saying goes there’s no such thing as bad press, but that’s even more true on social media. It doesn’t matter whether people are watching and commenting because they hate you. Engagement is engagement, and the more the better.
