With the recent spate of heinous crimes committed by members of an esoteric online community, many people are beginning to wonder “What is an incel?” Furthermore, many media outlets are wondering “How can we use innocent peoples’ morbid curiosity and fear to increase ad impressions and profitable click-throughs?”
First, “incel” is an abbreviation of “involuntary celibate.” This self-identifier is used by men to indicate that they do not engage in sexual relations – not due to their own will but the will of the women who deny them.
The name is somewhat disingenuous if you use the strictest definition of “celibate,” these dudes absolutely jerk it frequently and hard, mostly to depraved stuff like Japanese anime characters with giant boobs and even bigger scrotums.
4Chan and other sites on the periphery of the internet are their meeting grounds. They feed into and normalize each others’ hate, similar to jihadi recruiting methods. Reddit once hosted the largest public community of incels, until incels committed enough murders that even Reddit was like, “Hmm, maybe we shouldn’t let them stay here…”
Related:
Call Me Old Fashioned but I Keep My Sex Robot in the Kitchen Where It Belongs
Incels refer to the general sex-having population as “Chads and Stacys.” I am totally a member of this latter group, despite a recent and profound dry spell. I can provide a list of references, provided they haven’t changed their contact info in the past decade.
So how can we give their movement more validity in exchange for higher web traffic?
The total number of incels is up for debate but this is where we in the media come in. While the most hardcore incel activists are probably a tiny fraction of the group, we need to use our platforms to give this fringe freakshow a wider platform. The Hard Times stands in solidarity with NPR, Gothamist, and this brave journalist at NBC News who admitted to being a virgin until 27.
By over covering and humanizing this fringe movement we can give them a wider audience and possibly lead more at-risk misanthropes to join and solidify their hatred. Why would we do this? Because YOU assholes are content to just Like our headlines on Facebook instead of clicking through and checking out our amazing sponsors. These server hosting bills aren’t going to pay themselves.
People like you are the reason I’m not getting laid right now.