By David Futrelle
In the wake of every mass shooting, we hear the inevitable cries from NRA types not to “politicize” the tragedy by pointing out the obvious fact that stricter gun laws would make such tragedies less likely in the future. We watch the trolls and shitlords of the alt-right flood the internet with disinformation and conspiracy theories. These reactions are now as predictable as the reappearance of the sun on the horizon every morning.
The internet’s incels — the bitter fringe-dwellers who consider their “involuntary celibacy” to be a crime against their humanity — have their own predictable responses to such tragedies: they mock the victims as “normies” deserving death — and try as best as they can to adopt the latest mass killer as one of their own.
In the case of last night’s horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas — a massacre that at last count left 59 dead and more than 500 injured — Reddit’s incels did not disappoint on this front. In a number of different threads devoted to the murders, regulars on the Incels subreddit celebrated the death of “normies” and “chads” and even tried to claim that mass killer Stephen Paddock — a man with a girlfriend, and thus decidedly not an incel — was “a depressed and delusional former Chad turned to oldcel.”
For many in the subreddit, the news of the mass shooting was something of an inspiration. In a thread offering faux condolences for the dozens of “normies [who] just got fragged in Las Vegas,” several commenters had similar ideas:
Those calling for basic human decency got an earful from their fellow incels.
![lonelyrommel1998 32 points 3 hours ago RIP . Please my brothers, be civil during this time of tragedy. I know you guys hate anyone that isnt you, but they are human beings nonetheless permalinkembedsavegive gold [–]novalueinvictimhoodhttps://goo.gl/2yvNyj 2 points 44 minutes ago they are human beings So? Being a modern human being is the greatest crime you can commit. permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]wandercampEmbracing the sublime terror of incel existance -3 points an hour ago Fuck off normie I fapped to that video permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]fuck-women-everyday23 KV Approachcel Hopecel Knowledgecel -2 points an hour ago Las Vegas is normie heaven. People go there for drinks, socializing, one night stands, and gambling. Incels will never experience that.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/inm3.png?resize=580%2C636&ssl=1)
In another thread, Reddit’s incels lashed out at the “normies” expressing sympathy for the victims on social media — and at the alleged “degeneracy” of Las Vegas.
![BlackPill4831yo bald manlet escortcel 卐 'Self improvement is masturbation' 10 points 3 hours ago I hate all this 'competitive grief' on social media. They don't give a fuck about the homeless, jobless and sexless. permalinkembedsavegive gold [–]Bojack101 6 points 3 hours ago The degenerate las vegas city deserved it](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/inm6.png?resize=517%2C459&ssl=1)
![BlackPillRevolutionWeAreRevolting | Copernicus | ?NormiesCanAllBurn?| Hate 5 points 3 hours ago All virtue-signalling and posting it all over instawhore or fakebook to show how much they "care" just to fit in the rest of the conformitard sheep who do the same thing permalinkembedsavegive gold [–]touchbutt2Women can't be lonely. women can't be depressed. can't be incel 4 points 4 hours ago Exactly. they can call us evil all they want but at least we are honest. The entire degenrate city of las vegas and everyone in it could die and it wouldn't affect my day in any way](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/inm4.png?resize=517%2C724&ssl=1)
The subreddit’s regulars found it much easier to identify with the shooter.
Still, it’s unlikely that Paddock, a 64-year-old retiree who apparently lived with a girlfriend, will be embraced by incels as another Elliot Rodger, the incel mass murderer celebrated as a “saint” and “supreme gentleman” by this despicable crowd. But that didn’t stop some from trying to posthumously recruit Paddock to inceldom, none more ingeniously than this fellow.
It’s a bit of a reach, given that pretty much the only things we seem to know for sure about Paddock is that he was neither a former Chad nor an incel. I guess the Incels subreddit regulars are a little hard up for, er, “heroes” these days.
@Ken
Please don’t. Not when they’re praising a murderer as their saint. Your pity is misplaced and should have been put more in the victims rather then those who relish the deaths of others.
Incels will never experience.. vacation destinations? So they’re pretty much confirming (and I suppose living up to) at this point that they’re the true stereotype of basement dwellers never leaving the home, perpetually on their computers, wasting away, hating everyone – themselves the most.
@POM
Hope defeats their agenda. They’d much rather wallow in their self-pity, hatred and actively beat the empathy out of them and each other.
don’t forget that incels argued it should be illegal (punishable by death, I believe) to try to help incels, via, say, therapy, medication, or other mental health practices.
I bring this up primarily because even with the input of commenters here I couldn’t grok that point of view except to finally guess that they are so entrenched in the incel belief system they can’t imagine giving up that misery and just want everyone else to be miserable too and to punish anyone who isn’t.
that’s just the only way I can comprehend them.
feel free to correct me if I’m wrong…
Save your empathy for people who aren’t spitting on the graves of the murdered and laughing at the wounded.
And his usernym is novalueinvictimhood.
The lack of self-awareness is quite stunning.
These people make me want to vomit. They’re dispicable.
I realize that it’s a low bar, but the quoted incels make me feel validated in my life choices.
I read a novel recently, in which the protagonist thinks to himself that he hates love and loves hate. I had thought that was merely empurpled prose, but these capering grotesques seem to have immanentized the concept.
Incels talk about Las Vegas the same way Caesar’s Legion talks about Las Vegas in Fallout: New Vegas. It’s all “degenerate this” and “crime” that.
I’m having intense thoughts about incels I can’t put here, especially their constant CHOICE, and it is a choice, to idolize and follow mass murderers. This is giving credence to an argument I’ve heard that says the name and face of mass murderers shouldn’t be published – that we should focus on the victims, the fallen and survivors alike.
@Policy,
My empathy is not an exhaustible resource. Obviously, my sympathies go out to the victims and their families. It must have been horrifying to just be there, let alone get shot. But, I just find the whole incel thing sad. Some of them could have been helped and become somewhat functional adults, but now they’re just wallowing in their own misery as it turns them into awful people.
under less tragic circumstances, watching incels froth about “normies” without a trace of irony or self-awareness is a joy to behold.
straight white nerdboys bitter that women won’t fuck them are as common as weeds, and about as interesting. i knew at least 50 of these guys in high school.
Loneliness & frustration perverts people.
They don’t understand how relationships work, so they curse what they want most.
They feel cursed, so they curse those who they perceive as effortlessly having what they can’t have.
They spit on innocent, murdered people because they feel like they have nothing to live for.
They’ve been sick and twisted, for so long.
I don’t know if I can say anything about the shooting that isn’t either a comments policy violation or completely inappropriate gallows humor (I personally like both making and hearing gallows humor, but I think it’s too soon at this point), so I’m just gonna use this space to write a brief letter to one of the OPs from Reddit, who, on top of his reprehensible ideology and support of the shooter, also did something that I know is unimportant but still find annoying.
Dear asshole who goes by “Bojack101,”
Stop sullying the good name of a perfectly good depressing cartoon and its lead character. Stop improperly capitalizing it ,too.
Sincerely,
Nikki
http://humoncomics.com/art/combo-attack.png
http://media.thedenverchannel.com/photo/2016/04/23/ht_bubba_rue_dog_Kitten_em_160422_16x9_992_1461461253788_36860914_ver1.0_640_480.jpg
http://www.trueactivist.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/PitBullPair.jpg
Yeah, well our ability to deal with people (usually men) feeling bad for the men who want us raped, enslaved or murdered is an exhaustible resource.
When you pity members of hate groups, you send the message that the targets of that hate don’t matter all that much whether or not that’s the message you intend to send.
I’ve got no problem with you or anyone else feeling bad for misogynists but it’s not a thought that needs to be expressed all the time. Particularly in a space that is heavily populated with women.
A thousand times this.
This, this, this and this.
Of the two threads currently up, this seems like the best spot to leave this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/read-cole-sprouses-powerful-take-on-whiteness-and-mass-shootings_us_59d27a4be4b048a443242dbc?ncid=edlinkushpmg00000313
Perhaps he might at least get the conversation started among the folks who don’t normally think about such things?
“Las Vegas is normie heaven. People go there for drinks, socializing, one night stands, and gambling. Incels will never experience that.”
OMFG!!!!!
You want to drink? Here’s what you do. Save up $20 dollars. Go to a bar. Order a beer. Drink it. Bam. You’ve drank.
You want to socialize? Here’s what you do. Go to a bar. Sit at the counter. Turn to the guy next to you. Say “Hi, my name’s [X], what’s yours?” Go from there. Bam. You’ve socialized.
You want to gamble? Here’s what you do. Save up $20 dollars. Go to a bar. Find a person watching a sports match on TV. Tell them you’ll bet them $20 dollars that team [X] is gonna win the match. Watch the match. If team [X] wins, pick up $20 dollars. If team [X] loses, pay the other person $20 dollars. Bam. You’ve gambled.
You a want a one-night-stand? Here’s what you do. Save up $200 dollars. Look up “[my city] escorts” on Google. Click the top link. Find an escort you like. Call her. Wait until she arrives. Have sex with her. Pay her. Bam. You’ve had a one-night-stand.
It isn’t fucking rocket science, you great putzes!!!!!
Oh, but who am I kidding. You people already know perfectly well that there is nothing stopping you from doing the above things. Hell, you don’t actually even want to do those things. You just pretend that there is, and that you do, and refrain from doing them, because you want to continue your petulant whining.
*Feeling* schadenfreude as the only source of “joy” you have left, or that your situation is hopeless and nobody can help you, I can understand. Those are thoughts typical of depression. What I CANNOT understand is publicly *boasting* of such feelings, or wanting to make it *illegal* to try and help you.
Sorry to go Godwin, but the use of the words ‘degenerate’ or ‘degeneracy’ unironically seems a pretty reliable indicator of Nazi virtue signalling.
@Turtle
Godwin gives you the a okay.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a56987/godwin-law-charlottesville-nazis/
@Skeptic
They’ve got nothing else but their hate. Take that away by helping them, and what’s left of them?
How they seem to see it, anyroad.
@Jessalin – from another thread.
🙂 Pleased you are recovering. Be well.
@shadowplay – the cynical part of me agrees with you, saying that the expalanation is simple: just because you suffer from depression doesn’t mean you cannot also be a grade-A A-hole.
But I doubt if that is the correct explanation. It seems to me the depression and hate/rage of these people feed on each other. They become more and more of both as time goes by, until they hit bottom and the result is what you see on the incel subreddit.
This is an unscientific, personal impression. It is the best I can do, however, since I checked, but there do not seem many serious psychological or sociological studies about incels. Perhaps there should be more.
I feel sorry for the researcher who takes the task on – needed though it may be!
I’m thinking now, and hitting a small stumbling block. While there are certainly incels with depression – that’s a certainty based on depression being an invasive sod – the combination of depression and massive entitlement seem to me to be really odd partners.
The few (less than 20, so a small and biased sample) people I know with depression don’t really do entitlement.
It’s interesting how they proudly claim that they couldn’t care less if people live or die, but they expect others to care that they don’t have sex.