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.
Shooter many have had more in common with the manospherians than initially though.
O_O
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-las-vegas-shooting-live-updates-at-his-local-starbucks-vegas-shooter-1507060195-htmlstory.html
Skeptic,
“We” weren’t wondering about depression and entitlement unless you have a very smart frog in your pocket.
Oh! Well that would be fine then, of course. If they are cheerleading acts of terrorism for laughs, if they denigrate women for the giggles, that would be perfectly fine. It’s kind of like how passing a woman over for a promotion just because she’s a woman would be bad, but passing a woman over for a promotion as a fun prank is totally cool.
I am just SO FUCKING SURPRISED
What evidence do you have to support your assertion that this is the more likely scenario?
*Thought and for those that don’t read the article the blowup at his girlfriend was apparently a regular thing just AT THAT STARBUCKS per the employees. Can’t imagine it was only there.
The posters on /r/Incels are thinking like domestic abusers. Studies show that abusive people feel entitled to a relationship with a partner who treats them well, not just sex. They tell researchers (assuming the abusers are protected from prosecution resulting from participating in the study) that they know they have other outlets for sex if their partners leave. The abuse is really a tactic for enforcing conventional social attitudes like that some men are entitled to a relationship as a type of birthright. Maybe “abuse” isn’t the best term because it conceals the person’s attempt to have control in the relationship and to manipulate social attitudes.
Trolls, at least ones in chan culture, tend to be very aware of social psychology and the fact that they’re creating propaganda favoring certain social norms. They’re aware of cultural hegemony and how ideology creates a socially constructed reality when certain ideas become mainstream. On 4chan, users intentionally set up a culture that favors norms that emerge organically over time. The main “meta-norms” enforcing that are (A) people who disagree with a norm (like, say, that it’s acceptable to use racial slurs as allegedly general insults) must be prepared to defend their views with hyper-rational arguments against abusive comments and (B) if you disagree and don’t give hyper-rational arguments, then you’re invading their “safe space” and you must be destroyed. The catch is that most channers won’t bother to read your hyper-rational arguments. So yes, trolling is dangerous and it doesn’t really matter that trolls aren’t always completely committed to everything they say. They’ve actually succeeded in creating a culture committed to their toxic values that’s very resistant to any type of social reform.
http://www.cbc.ca/comedy/actual-lone-wolves-issue-rare-joint-statement-stop-comparing-us-to-white-terrorists-1.3961672
Points to JoeB’s link ^^^
See, Skeptic and anyone else who seeking ways to dismiss misogyny as no big deal or not something that men really mean when they do it, every goddamn time there’s a mass shooting we see something like this. Every fucking time. Evidence of misogyny, partner violence winds up surfacing. Every fucking time the friends, families, coworkers, neighbors of the shooter are soooo surprised this happened. Every time.
Because derogatory speech, misogynistic attitudes and even partner abuse are so normalized that people see men doing this and still think he’s a nice normal guy. Perhaps if we actually took this stuff seriously and were disturbed by it, some of these escalations to mass murder could be prevented. At the very least, if we took it seriously people might stop scolding women for seeing these red flags and avoiding men like that. Even that would be just lovely.
I’m just as surprised to see that someone named Skeptic is a rapey sealioning fuckcanoe as I am whenever I see that someone named Rebels4Trump1488 is a Nazi.
“I googled a thing, and then came here to ‘splain it to y’all because I am clearly now the established expert.”
Jesus, Skeptic, you’re like a farce, or a caricature.
From JoeB’s link:
There’s that common denominator: domestic abuse. I was wondering how long it would take to come out. It wasn’t mentioned in the WaPo profile of the shooter, but little about his relationship with his gf was, so there was a gap there to fill.
Man, I thought we were gonna have David ban Skeptic. Getting kinda old is all.
@calmdown
We still can. A bunch of people were for it.
She was away on a trip when the shooting happened, right?
Since we’re talking so much about casinos and gambling anyway: Anyone want to start a betting pool as to whether it will come out that she sent him a “Dear John” text/phone call, and waited until she was away because she feared violence if she broke up with him in person, and that the breakup was the proximate trigger for his meltdown?
I’m for banning skeptic too, if that counts.
(Finally I’m able to say something suitable for the comments policy).
oh gosh.
If the shooting happened because of a “dear John” letter, the media will absolutely tear that letter apart and blame her for any tiny sign that they could blame it on her.
I really, really hope that didn’t happen.
Why would you celebrate inoccent peoples deaths?
Just doesnt make sense
Not @Skeptic, but about Skeptic:
I feel a little bit better about Skeptic’s original comment, but not by much.
You need to be careful when you put “depression” with a qualifier, be it “entitled” or anything else, unless you are qualified to comment.
I have depression. I apologise for taking this long to respond; how it was originally characterised made me see red for a while. I have no idea how bigots experience depression; my own experience makes me think bigotry is antithetical to depression (maybe psychologists should take note), because surely bigots think they’re better than other people but my depression manifests with me thinking I’m worse. Maybe Your Depression May Vary.
If I’m wrong and there are many ways to be depressed, maybe we need your insights about as much as we need mine. Not at all. I’m done. Are you? Finally?
Turns out I was speaking to, rather than about, Skeptic all along. But have they gone? Here’s hoping.
You see, they don’t ACTUALLY hate women and worship mass murderers! They just think it’s hilarious to make other people believe that they hate women and worship mass murders, and have a good old laugh while encouraging other people who claim to hate women and aspire to be mass murderers! Completely innocuous, ewe guise!
I also find it interesting that the hatred and violence of the incels is TOTALLY just non serious trolling, but the paaaain of them not being given their every sexual desire, that’s definitely real and worthy of pity and sympathy.
I have no objections to skeptic being banned either.
I dont agree with the fact that lonliness perverts the mind also
There are plenty of men out there who never get laid and cant/dont have sex who are happy with their lives and dont think about killing women every day of the week
Honest (Male speaking here )!
@Scildfreja:
No doubt. But if they do it’s worth pointing out that the guy had been divorced twice already and was 64 years old, so he sure as shit should have learned to handle rejection by this time. (Not that getting a Dear John letter is a valid excuse for committing violence even in angsty young teens, but it’s even less valid for an elderly person with plenty of relationship experience.)
Daily reminder that Reddit Incels are some of the worst human beings to ever walk the face of this planet.
JoeB:
I must admit, I was expecting to read something like this, but it still made me go cold.
@PruexFox
No one with their mindset of mentality can possibly get a girl to be honest
There are plenty of “loveshy” men who are sweet and genuine, just struggle to get a girl to like them. Plenty of decent unattractive guys out there who would love to get laid but dont fucking go on a misogonistic rant about it (e,g michael from the love shy documentary)
Problem is these INCELS are a vocal bunch of idiots who are making it even harder for everyone who is “loveshy” to be accepted. This will only have a more negative impact on society
The blaming has already started. Just now I read rumors that he gave her money earlier. Comments are already calling for her to be interrogated or put to trial for murder.