flame war

plural flame wars · alternative flamewar

1. InternetdatedAn argument consisting entirely or largely of flames by various parties that serve only to escalate the dispute.

   Remember, Smokey the Bear says, "Only you can prevent flame wars".

   2008 July 12, Megan McArdle, “Note to trolls”, in The Atlantic

   2 more examples

   That post was the starting point for a flame war between Linux creator Linus Torvalds and Tanenbaum and a bunch of other enthusiasts, who later became the first Linux developers.

   2019, Kamran Amini, Extreme C, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 362

   And much has been made of the colorful flame wars between the Maga mouth-piece Steve Bannon, a proud nationalist and populist, and the Trump-allied billionaires he has attacked as “technofeudalists” who “don’t give a flying fuck about the human being” – let alone the nation state.

   2025 April 13, Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor, “The rise of end times fascism”, in The Guardian, →ISSN