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George Bernard Shaw famously observed that "England and America are two countries separated by the same language." It appears, however, that this chasm has finally been overcome by the common dialect of rage. The new word of the year was announced this week by the Oxford University Press, and it is tragically apt: "rage bait."

First used in 2002, the new word is defined as "online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content."

The choice is certainly apropos of what I described in my recent book, "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage." Rage is a curious emotion. It is the ultimate release. It allows you to do things and say things that you would not otherwise do or say. That is why it is addictive and contagious.

Rage, however, can also be a license not just to rave, but to regulate.

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The key to rage is that it is entirely subjective and relative. If you agree with a speaker, it is righteous. If you disagree, it is dangerous.

That relativism was evident in Oxford's own press release on the selection of the word. Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, associated the term with "manipulation tactics we can be drawn into online." He slammed "

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