JF

But 'inceldom', like so many dysfunctional online subcultures, fulfils a specific and 'useful' niche within our media ecology by acting as a kind of social dustbin for inconvenient or unacceptable thoughts and feelings- by which I do not mean 'misogyny and racism'

It does this by providing a community of mutual recognition around these feelings- feelings of being a 'loser', being 'unloved' etc- which also has the effect of intensifying them into a fully-fledged identity which now exists symbiotically with the community

Because 'loneliness', 'loserdom' etc are the basis for mutual recognition in this community, their expression forms the currency of its social intercourse in the form of stories, commiserations, in-jokes etc- which has the effect of intensifying them out of all proportion

I suspect that many people who participate in these communities are often caught by surprise or somewhat mystified by the sudden intensity of their feelings- 'I hate women so much it's unreal'- where does this come from?

This is all obviously unhealthy, dysfunctional, 'toxic' etc but ppl are invested in its appearance ex nihilo- they don't want to think abt the cultural conditions necessary for it to develop in the first place and necessary to sustain it

There seems to be widespread denial of the fact that the majority of people in Western society are recognition-starved. There's a corresponding failure to realise that communities of mutual recognition have a gravitational effect on what they seek to recognise

The convenience of the 'incel' for a society that doesn't want to recognise its chronic loneliness is that of a psychic waste disposal system- it produces grotesque emotional 'monsters' as part of its normal functioning, it's *intended* to do this

Society is organised in such a way that the majority of its inhabitants are chronically lonely. How does it deal with this? It presides over the emergence of a monstrous cultural form to which this loneliness is magnetised, so that ppl are saved from recognising themselves in it