Bad Love and Affective Discrimination: How Intimacy Legitimises Relational Control in Digital Discourse

his article investigates bad love, a form of emotionally manipulative discourse that operates under the guise of affection. Bad love is defined as language that simulates emotional investment through expressions of love and concern while functioning to control another person. Drawing on user-generated narratives from Reddit, the study analyses emotionally charged exchanges in which coercion is exercised through appeals to culturally sanctioned relational roles such as partner or family member. These roles are discursively weaponised to legitimise possessiveness, guilt, dependency, and boundary violations. Methodologically, the study integrates membership categorisation analysis (MCA) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) alongside sustained attention to techno-discursive strategies within a platformed environment. The analysis shows how shared cultural scripts, especially category-bound activities, are distorted to invert moral expectations. By situating the investigation within Reddit’s attention economy, the article demonstrates how manipulative affective language is not only produced but also circulated, validated, and normalised in digital contexts.