Today, the post was verified by @JaneLytv (and CBC and the Globe) as belonging to the man’s Facebook page, though it’s still unclear if it was written BY him — that’s harder to confirm.
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What is an Incel? It means “involuntary celibate,” and it is a movement of men who are angry that women don’t have sex with them.
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What is a “Chad” and “Stacy?” Those are Incel terms for people who are sexually active. Incel culture spends a lot of time making fun of / directing anger towards women and men who have sex. Important to note: this is far and away mostly anti-women hatred.
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Where do these communities live? Mostly on Reddit + 4chan. Can Reddit do anything about this? They...already have, sort of? They banned the community last year. However, it popped up under a different name.
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Are Incels violent? No, not typically — they do spread a lot of hatred online, though. However, the Facebook post specifically praised Elliot Rodger, who killed 6 people in 2014, then himself. Rodger described himself as an Incel.
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Very much worth noting: According to police, Alexandre Bissonnette, the Quebec mosque shooter, also googled Eliot Rodger 24 hrs before committing his crime.
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Why is there still doubt about the veracity of the post if it was confirmed it was his page? Some people speculate that because the writing is different from Minassian’s writing style in his gaming profile, someone could’ve hacked his account and backdated the post.
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What can we conclude? It’s been, what, 23 hours? Let it breathe. We have a lot of information but what we know is remarkably little. Big, big difference.
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Lastly, there’s a lot of false information and unverified claims floating around. My colleagues who are truly the best in the business at cutting through this mess have laid it out here:https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/rumors-toronto-van-attack-alek-minassian-debunk-muslim …
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Adding an update here: Police say they believe the Facebook post was made "minutes before" Minassian's attack. That's pretty significant.
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I thought I was pretty well informed about violence against women & femicide but I’ve never heard of incel. Sigh
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You don't want too. It's a whole new level of anti-women. They all fester on Reddit and 4chan.
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