Or swaying opinions on hot topics. It's interesting to see how much more often politics gets injected into forums (reddit or elsewhere) on completely unrelated topics. Sometimes it's subtle, like a "signature" promoting out of the mainstream causes that then slowly make it look more mainstream.

Almost all geographic subreddits (for cities/states) are overwhelmed by rage baiting posts and comment. This got worse when reddit did the moderation changes a few years ago when they went public. To them it probably just looks like more "engagement". I have no doubt various nation state actors are backing a lot of this.