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.
The bbc said he praised Elliot Rodger on his now deleted Facebook Page.
Incels are terrorists and must be treated, along with other nazis, by counterintelligence the same way that Islamic terrorists are.
These people just can’t get that whole “Utopia”/”Dystopia” thing straight….
In Starbucks bigotry follow-up news…
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/16/opinions/philadelphia-starbucks-sounds-familiar-to-me-w-kamau-bell-opinion/index.html
love this quote
I mean apart from being complete utter bullshit this is so telling. Like, the only thing in the world that is worth anything is sex. Or in their case, the idea of having sex. I mean how do they even know?How can people become so damaged?? Like I get there’s a pressure especially in the U.S among teenage guys that you gotta “get laid” but I don’t understand how they just… completely buy into it, just hook line and sinker.
Reading those comments in your post is absolutely terrifying. What is wrong with those people to make them hate the world so much? I so hope it’s just talk and not planning.
Add the LA Fitness shooting in Pennsylvania to the list of incel attacks. A lower body count than Isla Vista or Toronto, to be sure, but George Sodini’s motive was very similar to Elliot Rodger’s and (what we know about) Alek Minassian’s: a sense of entitlement to sex causing him to hate women for rejecting him.
The entire incel movement, and its celebration of mass killers especially, reminds me of an old slasher movie from 2001 called Valentine. The killer there was a man named Jeremy Melton who had been subjected to a cruel prank at a middle school dance by the popular girls and their jock bully friends, which ruined his life, and now he’s come back to kill them all. It was a terrible film, between its late ’90s/early ’00s “slick, vapid teen horror” feel and how it seemed to take the killer’s side (the victims were all portrayed as assholes, save for the token “final girl”), but every time we get one of these mass murders, I’m reminded of that movie. Not just in terms of the plot, but with how society seems to treat this sense of entitlement with kid gloves and even sympathize with it.
Kevin,
I feel like a dork for knowing this off the top of my head, but that guy was only a red herring, not the killer. The killer was the Kate Capshaw character. The rich girl who used to be fat and nerdy when she was young. I think it turned out she falsely accused him of sexually harassing her to save face with her pretty, popular friends but secretly empathized with him and liked him and for some reason she snapped and took on his persona and started killing his friends. Still a facepalmity motive but in a different way.
I’m seriously kind of embarrassed that I knew all that from memory.
What’s the endgame for these people? What is the desired result of the “incel uprising”? Do they think it’s going to get them laid? Is it just “If I can’t have [sex], then nobody can”? Maybe most of them are just shitposting, but some of them obviously are doing far more – what’s their goal?
NBC TV in Chi just ran a story calling this (incident in Toronto) a problem of MENTAL ILLNESS and NOT! terrorism!
I’d post a link to this story, but this news is still on (TV) and I can’t find it on their website yet.
I’m sure similar “explanations” abound on all various media.
This is not good. Par for the course though, make it go away by heaping “mental illness” on it.
@Dan Someone
Destruction for it’s own sake. That’s the point and the aim. Nothing more, no matter how they “pretty it up.”
Hello there!
Long time lurker decided to de lurk!
I guess I could’ve picked a better (read less horrific) post, but this one seemed to be the proverbial straw which broke the camel’s back.
Sometimes I wonder if these ‘incels’ ever realise that they have a considerable amount in common with the likes of ISIS or al-Qaeda militants (minus, possibly, the guts – although this may be a good thing). I recall a post made some time ago about a serial rapist who made a thread on reddit extolling the virtues of raping women – thought I’d toss that into the ring.
It truly is an echo chamber, isn’t it?
Is there any way to get some sort of law enforcement to look in to this and these people? I know it’s online and these people are probably from all over the world, so it’s not something local police can do much about, but maybe the fbi or rcmp? they are literally encouraging each other to commit terrorist acts and giving each other tips on how to kill or harm mass amounts of people, people like “BlkPillPres” be investigated and at the very least be closely watched by police, they are the threat to the public.
People need to be made aware of what these people are advocating for and planning, there needs to be public pressure to investigate and hold there people responsible for the things they say.
I think major media outlets need to be sent these links and screenshots and hopefully more people will become aware that these aren’t “lone wolf” attacks nor can they be chalked up simply to mental illness, but that they are terrorist attacks, and hopefully it would put pressure on law enforcement to investigate and take down these groups and keep more men from becoming radicalized.
On the Twin Cities news, they said he left a cryptic FB message, but didn’t tell the audience what it meant, other than that he identified with Elliot Rodger. They didn’t say anything about mental illness though. I guess that’s relatively good.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, people are saying the FB message is fake (even though they verified the veracity) and that incel is not a real thing that exists. Oh, how I wish!
I think that they secretly know that the rejection is not because of looks. It’s because they are terrible people. As long as they use the “ugly” excuse they won’t have to admit the truth.
Honestly, how could avoiding a relationship with someone who plans murders and rapes be anything other than smart? It’s not shallow if it’s trying to stay alive! I have to believe these men are extremely likely to abuse or kill a sexual partner if they are fantasizing about it on the internet. Maybe the foids are not as stupid as they think.
WTF is wrong with those idiots called incels? They cannot get laid so they lash out at women and the rest of the society? If they stop indulging in internet porn and idiotic and unrealistic video games fantasies maybe, just maybe they will rediscover basic social skills that could help them meet the right women. Rejection is a part of courtship, always has been and always will be. Accept it. The bigger an asshole you are the faster a woman will drop you like sack of potatoes. To all those incels outthere here is a solution: you all should get together with your incel brethren and satisfy each other sexually if you cannot accept the reality of living in a society we have. You are all made just perfect for each other.
@weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee
It’d be so nice to live in a world without incel terrorists. I apologize that was redundant.
Looked for the news story I mentioned above, found the following from NBC which is from 4 hours ago, about the same as I saw on TV.
This one also says, right below the title, a sub title, “Mental illness is the leading theory behind the apparently deliberate attack”.
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/Toronto-Van-Rampage-Suspect-in-Court-480671891.html
This is not good. I find myself at a loss for words, also.
I’ve always looked at incels as abusers who don’t have the social graces to manipulate their targets into a relationship. Getting a girlfriend or wife wouldn’t help them, they’d just start committing IPV.
ETA: That was a reply to Calmdown, I just didn’t type fast enough and other posts got in there first!
Yep.
Look at yon idiot’s sig lines: braincel, lookscel, facecel, heightcel, dickcel, ethnicel, fucking EYECEL! – all fine gradations of BS excuses.
If one of them had charactercel I’d be more impressed than shocked right now.
This guy self pityingly told two friends of mine (both women) that he had eyes the color of poop. I wonder if he’s on the incel forums calling himself an eyecel now. This was about 15 years ago so maybe he grew the fuck up instead. Hopefully, it’s the latter.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
I wonder how many incels are atheists who used this quote in regard to religion? Sad that they never realized that they weren’t the smartest people around just because they’d seen through one form of bullshit.
Twitter is all atwitter over this…and I keep running across an apologist account who is dismissive and whattabouting…
@Ed:
My thoughts exactly. The police really do need to start reading their fora and watching them. Right now, it seems, the RCMP will only look at them if they are Islamists like Daesh, or — maaaayyyyybe — swastika-bearing neo-Nazis. That’s too narrow a focus, and needs to change. Happily, the CBC have been mentioning the incel angle and pointing to it as a likely motive, so at least we’ve got one major media outlet paying attention to them now. (I haven’t checked in with Global and CTV, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were following suit, either.)
I’ve blogged on this, if anyone’s interested. Sorry the comments section is closed, but ever since Donnie Drumpf wangled his way into the White House, I’ve been unable to stomach seeing hate from Nazis in my inbox, demanding me to moderate it. I’ve decided to go no-platform until he’s gone or the menace subsides, whichever happens first.
Also, nthing everyone who said that it’s not outward ugliness that gets these guys rejected. Most of these incels are very ordinary looking; some are even (E. R. for example) nice looking. I’ve seen lots of far more physically unimpressive specimens find relationships and happiness, so looks are not the real deterrent here, and these guys probably know it and can’t bring themselves to admit it. The ugliness isn’t in their faces, it’s purely in their attitudes. They hate humanity generally and women in particular, and pretty, popular women most of all, so it’s no surprise that no one wants to engage with them. Who wants to have anything to do with someone who outright hates you?
Oh, and it’s not just social awkwardness, either. I know lots of socially awkward and emotionally troubled people. Some of them are among my friends. I’ve even been one myself at times. The idea that this is somehow to be blamed on autism or disabilities or a mere lack of social aptitude is disgusting and needs to die in a fire.
Hugs to anyone in need of them…
One infuriating article in a London (Ontario) version of the New York Post today essentially said “The motive for the killing is currently unknown, therefore we must look into mental illness as the cause.” SERIOUSLY?! For fuck’s sake .
@Bina
I’ll take a hug if you don’t mind. These tools don’t sit well on top of a particularly rough funeral.
(I just followed you on twitter, in case you were wondering who the coin guy that suddenly appeared were. 😛 )