A hot-take is simply a controversial opinion - but not necessarily an indefensible one. Oftentimes people will have a genuinely good, well-informed and reasone

A hot-take is simply a controversial opinion - but not necessarily an indefensible one. Oftentimes people will have a genuinely good, well-informed and reasoned opinion but can’t put it into the right words - or it gets misinterpreted thanks to ambiguity of intonation-less text - and ends-up getting ratioed. It helps to attach a pepper emoji so people know you’re at least being self-aware.