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Two days into my research on the incel world, and I am really scared. Here is what I have learned:
10. They use the language of the extreme right wing- what articles have begun calling the alt-right. Incorporating the idea of the red pill/black pill, they use terms like “femoids” and “staceys” infect the alt-right as well, allowing them to oppose abortion, birth control, rights for women, etc. Many Intel members are active on alt-right pages, too.
9. They are not new. This is the newest incarnation of the woman-hating misogynist minority that has always been there, insulting and demeaning women. None of the ideas is new, just their expression.
8. They are insulated. The boards include no women, and the people who disagree with them are removed immediately. The result is extremism on the rise, ramping up daily, with no one to present a reasoned argument.
7. They are obsessed with IQ, but many have no real education and no background in reason or philosophy. This lack of attribution to the methods of debate means that they easily fall into arguments that can be countered in a minute but don’t HEAR the counter. For example, a popular argument now among incels is the idea that they don’t have the right to sex but women want the right to free contraception, which, to them, gives them the right to sex on demand. Row after row of incels will agree that is a sound argument. Because of this…
6. They have huge holes in reasoning. For example, they complain about not having sex and how sex is a right, a basic need, yet they will insult and demean women for being whores and insult Chads- attractive men- for having sex. There seems to be no self-awareness around the issue. Some of the issues they address are contradictions that can’t be reconciled in any way. For example, they tend to adore Ayn Randian “strong over the weak” style “liberation” but detest that model when it comes to the reality of their own weakness and failure in Darwinian selection.
5. They hold severe positions on many related issues. On these boards, you will hear men argue to take away all rights for women (as in Handmaids tale) or eliminate the age of consent entirely, create conditions whereby men can marry women and keep them in the house, away from “chads”, etc. You will hear arguments for the death penalty for abortion and arranged marriages at an early age.
4. They are not religious, but easily use the language of religion when needed. They don’t seem to be religious, but members of these groups, Christians, Muslims, etc. seem to have no problem talking about God’s will for women, the rightful religious place for women, etc. They seem to have internalized the anti-woman aspects of religion. They are also rabidly homophobic with little context.
3. It is emotional and hateful.The movement may seem like a bunch of guys just sitting around talking but very often you will see posts fueled by some event that just happened, some guy who was just rejected. The response is hateful and brutal.
2. They seem to hate liberals and snowflakes and speak in the language of the victim. They, men, are oppressed. To them, men build the world, do everything, and should have access to women as payment. They don’t respond to intellectual argument and are enraged by ridicule.
1. It is terrorism. In these groups, the conversations often lead to big explosive fantasies about carnage and destruction, where women learn “their lesson.” Many of them give advice on how to scare women, follow them, make them feel uncomfortable. They have large scale rape fantasies presented publicly and they support each other when they talk about things like this. They are dangerous, and something we should not ignore.
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A version of this post was originally posted on Facebook and is republished here with permission from the author.
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