r/incelformalanaylsis
On May 23, 2014, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger uploaded a video to YouTube entitled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution.” Then he emailed his family and friends 137-page manifesto, which, in the same vein, he titled, “My Twisted: World: The Story of Elliot Rodger.” Then, he stabbed his three roommates to death and drove to the University of California campus in Santa Barba, where he attempted to enter a sorority house. Unable to gain entry, he returned to his car and began shooting at female students on the street. Rodger continued his rampage, as he drove through the Santa Barbra campus, until it became evident to him that he was being pursued by sheriffs. He shot and killed himself while still driving. That Friday, he killed six people and injured 14.
On April 23, 2018, 25-year-old Alek Minassian uploaded a cryptic post on Facebook. It read “The Incel Rebellion has already begun!” He then drove his van into a crowd of people in Toronto, Canada. Minassian killed 10 people and injured sixteen. The first breaking news reports were incredibly careful to make one thing clear — the Toronto police has ruled this incident out entirely as a possible terrorist attack. However, a Google search defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” The spread of bloodshed and fear to bring attention to and enforce a political ideology was, arguably, exactly what Minassian wished to achieve.
It is easier than ever to connect to a base of people who may subscribe to or be swayed by this rhetric. Digital mediums insure this; with the rise of less personalized, less profile-based platforms, such as 4Chan and Reddit, likeminded individuals may easily find each other, bounding over ideas and thoughts they could normally never share in their personal lives for fear of being shunned. They then are able to congregate in this digital space together — they create a group. They create power in numbers on a scale they could never seek on a physical level. Though, most concerning of all, digital mediums that promote anonymity and free speech also have a tendency to radicalize and foster violent and self-destructive thoughts and ideas.
And as internet has become a new infinite kitchen for fringe ideologies, the virtual crumbs left by Minassian were carried as if by ants back to a swarming, enormous colony — of whom Elliot Rodger is the mother ant. And they’re surviving and expanding off of an ‘incel’ cake.
The term “incel” is defined by being “involuntarily celibate.” Those who self-identify as incels align themselves, in some faction or another, and are often identified as a subculture of young males, most of whom are white and middle to upper class. The Los Angeles Times described incels as “a fringe group of sexually frustrated men who blame women for their misery and often advocate for violence against them.” These communities are most popularly known to have grown on sites like Reddit’s r/truecels, which is considered to be the “original” home, allowed users to post “lots of pro-rape, pro-pedophilia, and pro-murder” content that was allowed by the moderators of the subreddit. After being quarantined by Reddit, the group reorganized under the most it’s well-known subreddit, r/incels.
On November 4, 2017, Reddit officially banned r/incels as a part of a new policy sweep aimed at banning content that “calls for violence or physical harm.” Though, just like a hydra, cutting off the mouthpiece of one incel forum only allows more to grow pace in its place. Many of the more extreme subreddits have been banned over time, however, and more moderate but still extremely cancerous forums have been created. Currently, one of the most popular of these is known as r/braincels. Many of these sites hail Elliot Rodger as “The Supreme Gentleman,” and many also have branded themselves “Minassians.” Incels break off into many different factions and fringe subgroups, however, the main disturbing ideology remains: these groups of young men believe that women and feminism are to blame for their inability to obtain sex — because women are allowed to choose their mates of volition, they are inherently swallow and oppressive — and thus, women must be punished for depriving them of their ‘right’ to sex. The solution is to take way women’s freedom.
And I have become consumed with morbid curiosity, with rage, with great sadness, and great disgust towards all of this — but I cannot bring myself to look away. There is a seemingly endless labyrinth of content to scroll through; my computer mouse must be dizzy from the motion.
I could continue to delve further into ‘incel culture,’ I could continue to define ‘incel’ terms, I could continue to link recent events to these online communities (such as the ParklandShooting), and I could expend an infinite amount of energy meticulously discrediting and poking holes in ‘incel’ ideologies and ‘reasoning.’ Or I could join r/IncelTears spend my free time making memes and making fun of ‘incels.’ Though upon reflection, none of these options seems productive, or, frankly, good for my own mental and emotional soundness.
Howeever, maybe more constructive path may be to understand the ways in which these forums came to fruition, and how the advent of the internet helped to create a space so broad that even the darkest or most fringe communities never cease to exist. How did these communities evolve from a poorly lit, dangerous alley of the dark net, to underside of the bleachers in the school auditorium of Reddit?
Misery breeds company; digital media seems like such an easy solution.
The irony is that many of the grievances these ‘incel’ communities take with society — that attractiveness is given so much import, that virgins, outliers and misfits are not valued — are a result of millennia of patriarchal constructs. These are problems that feminism seeks to address and shed light upon. It’s core, ‘incel’ ideology is based in a deeply seated hatred of women; it’s based in learned helplessness; it’s based in unproductive anger. It’s founded spread by middle class white 20-somethings going to war from keyboards in their parent’s basements. It is based in an anxiety that the liberation of others inherently implies a downgrade of their own. It is based in entitlement.
Though not everyone involved is or should be considered a hopeless cause. The internet has created this new medium for which to spread thoughts and ideas — these ideas do not have to pass through the publishing houses of the status quo any longer.
They are instead championed by the people searching for likeminded individuals, searching for people who relate to their experience, searching for an end to the loneliness of whatever is plaguing them. And we now have the tools and resources to do that anonymously. Now the archetype of a scrawny kid who was bullied in middle school by jocks and rejected by all of the pretty girls finds a different ending — instead of hanging out at the library and slowly befriending a pretty girl who likes books, that kid grew up but didn’t leave his parents basement.
He found others like him; and he found others who were not like him — who were more interested in the spread of violence and supremacist ideas. They become acquaintances; they multiply and radicalize. Instead of seeking treatment for social anxiety disorder, for agoraphobia, for depression, they are validated. We have to pay them heed, and we have to listen. As fellow citizens of digital space, it should also be important to be the watchdog; not to engage, but to offer a different path. To acknowledge, but never normalize radical ideologies and behaviors, just as we would with any other form of terrorism.
