UPDATE: The CBC has confirmed with Facebook that Minassian’s post declaring himself an incel and hailing Elliot Rodger is real.
By David Futrelle
As I write this, it’s still not completely clear if Alek Minassian, the alleged driver of the van that killed ten pedestrians in Toronto yesterday in what appeared to be a very deliberate attack, is in fact a self-identified “involuntary celibate” trying to take revenge against the “Chads” and “Stacies” and other “normies” he blames for ruining his life — or if these reports are simply some sort of 4chan-style hoax.
But on the Incels.me forum, one of the more egregious hangouts for incels online, many are already hailing the alleged mass murderer as one of their own.
In an assortment of threads that popped up after the news media began to report on a supposed Facebook post from Minassian announcing that “the Incel Rebellion has … begun,” some of the Incels.me regulars are celebrating the killings and the alleged killer as “life fuel” for them and their nihilistic, misogynistic, misanthropic “movement.” (Click on the pics below to see the comments in context on Incels.me.)
Naturally, it didn’t take long for one of the regular commenters to adopt a picture of Minassian as his avatar.
But no one was quite so enthusiastic about the killings as the commenter calling himself BlkPillPres, who wondered if the killer had taken the advice he had given in a previous thread to use something other than guns in his “ER” — that is, Elliot Rodger-style — attack.
Many in the media and in politics are unwilling to label attacks driven by misogynistic ideology as terrorism — often declaring them to be simply the result of “mental illness,” as many did in the case of Elliot Rodger’s murders (ignoring his hundred page manifesto), and as the authorities are already doing in the Toronto attacks.
But misogyny is not mental illness; it’s hate. And what BlkPillPres is talking about here is essentially the dictionary definition of terrorism — “[t]he unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” The tactics he suggests are an explicit attempt to subject “normies” to “constant fear” — that is, terror — in all areas of their lives, in order to advance BlkPillPres’ goal of “black pilling” the world and intimidating those who criticize incels into silence.
Following his link back to the older thread, one quickly discovers that it is even more disturbing. In it, BlkPillPres sets out what he sees as the virtues of various terroristic strategies, from acid attacks to mass rape to vehicle attacks like the one we saw yesterday. (If you are feeling at all fragile you may wish to stop reading this post right here.)
Others in the thread suggests that this all sounds great to them, with one aiming some of his ire at the IncelTears subreddit, which is devoted to criticizing Incels on Reddit and elsewhere.
Other commenters offer their own even more horrifying ideas.
Like Ub2w, BlkPillPres is especially taken with the acid-in-the-face tactic.
“Kek.”
Sadly, as someone who has been writing about incels for several years now, none of this is surprising. Disturbing, yes, but not surprising. Incel is a hate movement, and it is long past time for it to be treated as such.
NOTE: The reaction amongst Reddit incels has been more measured; I may delve into that in a future post.
Meanwhile, I have friends who say that you need to squint eyes very hard to see thoses attacks as terrorists.
(some other says that it’s exagerated and counter-productive to say that they are the misogyny answer to nazis. I really don’t see how.)
What the hell does ER mean?
Yeah, and I thought terrorism too when they started talking about incels.
ER = Elliot Rodger
this is unbearable to read. who made these people into radicals? everyone always talks about who makes young Muslim men radicals, but they don’t see their neibours and friends who are incels.
We need to start referring to ‘the terrorist incel movement’ or at least ‘the terrorist wing of the incel movement’. Put it in front of people’s faces. We have at least one, maybe two mass killings under its name, we have online radicalisation, we have explicit declarations of terrorist intent. There is no serious argument that this isn’t terrorism.
My hope is that the deep sense of entitlement at the heart of the incel mindset means that many of them feel invulnerable and have been sloppy with their opsec. If so, there could be some police raids on those who have been posting threats.
If they want to declare themselves hostis generis humani, I can’t exactly disagree with that.
What probably pisses me off most is that this will not be called terrorism if it’s confirmed that he’s an incel.
For what it’s worth, here’s the relevant definition of terrorism as applies in Canada.
When we take this country back from Putin, and the Traitor McDucks, and their minions, we need to seize Palantir from Peter Thiel, nationalize it, and use it to track down every one of these vile cowards, and simply let them know that they are being watched–and will be watched, for the rest of their days. Since they are cowards, that should be enough to restrain them.
People in Alt Reich and conservative circles are already starting to spread propaganda and saying he was a Muslim. As always, they are disgusting.
There are times I wish we could lock incels into their own personal Matrix so they could indulge their fantasies without hurting anybody. And then I start feeling sorry for the NPOs/bots that would be the targets of incel rage.
I’m sure there are a few posts I’ve missed on this site, but I have to say this one is perhaps the most disturbing one yet. Reading this pretty much just ruined my day. These people vile and disgusting to the point where I lack the language to accurately describe my emotional reaction to reading them.
How does the mass rape fantasy of these dumpster fires from the reality of women all over the world?!
But then again incels don’t believe in rape culture, I guess.
@Ivory Bill Woodpecker : please, no dystopia even if seemingly for a good cause. I don’t think we need anything *new* to deal with thoses bozos. We just need to actually try.
A comic I love once said “beware of idealists. It’s alway the idealists that cause the most destruction”.
I think there may be other incidents that have slipped by largely unnoticed; one in Plymouth (England) springs to mind where a lad stabbed 3 women on separate occasions and left ‘manifestos’ for police stating he hated women. No-one died but I’m not sure that was why it wasn’t made more of a deal of. Society expects men to attack women for just being women, even if it doesn’t condone it.
http://bloodrizer.ru/games/kittens
Perhaps this would serve as a palate cleanser after the article.
Troubelle, I just love little clicker games like that, and I have never seen this kitten one. Thank you!
If it does turn out that Minassian has no more motivation than this after a thorough police investigation, I hope that at the very least the Toronto Police Service share their findings with other law enforcement agencies as an example of how this brand of online radicalization can lead to violent acts like this.
To quote Surplus in the previous thread:
Make no mistake, the kind of people we’re talking about want the notoriety that comes with an attack of this nature, but don’t want to face the consequences of it, hence demands to be shot by police. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the men (and it’s mostly men) that do this are the kind of invisible “faces in the crowd” kind of people, nondescript in appearance and unremarkable in achievements. Coupled with entitlement, anger at perceived slights can and has boiled over into violence.
Alexandre Bissonnette provides a stark example:
Emphasis mine. This might not be a coherent political motivation as most people understand terrorists to act upon, but this is certainly meant to instill fear into people for a specific ideological purpose. That’s the textbook definition of terrorism. It was just centered around one person rather than a grander cause.
Based on the definition Alan posted, I argue that these acts fit the bill.
Huh, link didn’t take: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-quebec-mosque-shooter-alexandre-bissonnette-was-bullied-in-school/
Seems this would be something law enforcement should be watching…maybe they are. But, good grief, if this isn’t warning signs of very bad things happening, I don’t know what is.
@Katamount.
You’ve defined ‘the banality of evil,’ (nondescript perpetrators) and you’ve hit the nail on the head.
I wish, I wish, I wish that people would take these guys seriously. They need to be stopped before they kill any more people.
@David and any other interested party: It seems like Paul Elams page register-her is up and running again…..
Sorry, I know it’s off topic..
They talk about “scores” as if murdering people was nothing more than a video game. There’s a complaint about a lack of empathy while they themselves show none at all.
I swear to the very funny Lord that these guys think everyone is living in a porn movie except for them. Someone should tell them that those movies aren’t documentaries.
@Anne – ughhh, just what we need right now. If so, maybe we can target the web hosting company with complaints, the way people did with the da*ly st*rmer?
As for the article… I’m so exhausted. I hope the SPLC has a response, regardless of whether the killer himself was incel, since incels are openly making terroristic threats while praising the attack. But the SPLC only recently even bothered to create a “male supremacy” hate group category, so I’m not counting on it. I’m so tired of terrorism against women being ignored or somehow treated as less urgent than terrorism against other groups, even by ostensible allies. I expect this mess to get the same treatment.
Come on, SPLC. Prove me wrong.