btw I did this thread of threads about incels the other day but there's one thing that journos who are new to the "genre" seem to get wrong: the "involuntary" part is rooted in entitlement and the belief that they didn't "choose" celibacy while simultaneously making it a choicehttps://twitter.com/redlightvoices/status/989114588913393665 …
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Let's not forget they came into existence when they felt that the pick up artists "failed" them because they were promised sex if they followed their techniques and when no sex materialized, they felt that they were victims of fraud
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at the very beginning (again, the TLs are a bit fuzzy but I'd say 2012 or so?), most of incel discourse was devoted to "exposing" the scam of pick up artistry. Because they had followed the "instructions" and failed to have sex.
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by forming these communities (which mostly happened on reddit and 4chan at the time), through in group dynamics, they "evolved" politically turning "inceldom" into a choice that was characterized by violent discussions abt how to harm women
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at the beginning they hated men who had relationships with women as much as they hated women. Again, that evolved and their main focus is now on harming women (though they sometimes express deep disdain for men they call "Chads" who are socially successful)
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initially my interest in them was because of how they had spun from MRAs and pick up artists and at the time I was interested in how white men were using the internet to network and form communities of affinity (something I initially became interested in through Anders Breivik)
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what I didn't anticipate at the time and only became clear years later was how the initial neo nazi networks/forums I was interested in would "evolve" to include MRAs, incels, identitarians, etc. These groups became what is now known as "the alt right"
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another mistake, imo, journalists make is to remain attached to the idea that these men are "ironic" and "shitposting". They aren't. This is an old narrative (again, 2012?) attached to the mainstreaming of 4chan. the idea that the politics of 4chan were "ironic" (they never were)
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nobody took these politics seriously (because "it's just a joke, nobody can *really* believe this stuff, right?") and we ended up with Brexit, Trump, Farage and Baudet. Yes, they believe this and they get platforms to access power
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one thing all these groups have in common is a very strong affinity for eugenics, phrenology and adjacent forms of scientific racism and gender essentialism. I'd venture that these have been the amalgamating factors that brought them together into "the alt right"
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a timely essay I published last month: "Towards a post Trump world: Mainstreaming Men’s Rights Activists"https://medium.com/this-political-woman/towards-a-post-trump-world-mainstreaming-mens-rights-activists-2028831085fd …
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TL;DR: imo, understanding incels requires situating them in the broader spectrum of right wing violence which includes (but is not limited to) misogyny but is also heavily informed by white supremacy and gender essentialism
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not going to go on a tangent now but just going to leave this here: (I'd say all but there might be exceptions I am not aware of) most "nofap" discourses and ideas are rooted in eugenics and antiquated notions of semen as the essence of masculine "energy"
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here it is! the inception of "inceldom" in 2013 documented by
@DavidFutrelle when their whole schtick was directed at pick up artists who "failed" them because they didn't get sex as promisedhttp://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2013/03/01/getting-their-puahate-on/ …Show this thread
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I know it’s just semantics but I saw the conscious “choice” of celibacy as the next step in the radicalisation. When they join & start self identifying as MGTOW. But I guess staying at incel means they can keep blaming their inadequacies on women.https://www.reddit.com/r/MGTOW/comments/6vyteh/whats_so_wrong_about_being_celibate/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=comment_list …
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I don't disagree with your observation at all, indeed one could say it's the next step in their radicalization
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Touché (*but also British & American English). *British English denies us all those edgy z’s.
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oooh good point. I don't even know which of the possible english languages I type in anymore
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How do you suggest they can get sex with women?
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