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On Monday, April 23, Alek Minassian allegedly went on a rampage that killed 10 people and injured 15 more. He was driving a van down a Toronto sidewalk.
“The Incel Rebellion has already begun,” he wrote in a post, using the abbreviation for “involuntary celibate” and referred to Elliot Rodger, a California college student who had gone on a killing spree.
Minassian referenced a number of anti-women terms and claimed, “We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”
“Chads” denotes men who have luck with women, among the irate males using anti-women hate speech, and “Stacys” are women who reject a man’s advances.
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What is an Incel Rebellion and why is it so noxious?
Take a system with a toxic version of success (the “ideal” man), and it will cause a whole layer of society to become deplorable, shameful, guilty of their circumstances (“It’s your fault”or “You did this to yourself” or “You asked for it”).
They used to be called needs and geeks, now they are called “incels”—“involuntary celibates.”
We might love for them to take responsibility for their situation, for their lack of social success/capacity/love/support, but will this give them the actual support they need to step out of their hole?
Will they be pushed back into this hole until they show up with the sort of social acumen and sophistication that we believe—incorrectly—they can just step into at any second IF they just wanted it enough?
How do we support those who are deplorable?
These are the orcs and goblins, the gollums, the ugly monsters we don’t hang out with and who will never get the love and compassion they need. They are the disfigured bad guys in all superhero movies. These are the ones who created their movement to be seen and heard.
It’s massively toxic and reeking of poison and sludge.
There’s nothing “right” about it.
There’s also nothing right about the system that got them where they are.
None of this is surprising. If you’ve been one of them, you know. If you haven’t, then you’re missing how this is totally par for the course.
Here is some background to incel culture.
A primer to incel culture, the possible motive for the Toronto attack
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We want to hear your point of view:
- What do we do now?
- Have you been/are you an incel? What has been your experience?
- If you are involuntarily celibate, where do you place the blame? How do you cope with pressure from others to be sexually involved?
- How do we redefine what an ideal man is, so we can relieve the pressure on men?
These questions are only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more, but this is a beginning. Tell us what you think.
When you’re ready to submit, click the red box, below.
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A version of this post was originally posted on Facebook in collaboration with Philippe Lewis and is republished here with permission from the authors.
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