By David Futrelle
Check out my piece on The Cut exploring incel mass murderer Elliot Rodger’s weird and creepy cult following.
An excerpt:
It’s been nearly four years since Rodger killed six (and then himself) in a rampage in Isla Vista, California — an act that he saw as an act of “retribution” against the women of the world, those “mean, cruel and heartless creatures” who had collectively rejected him, according to his lengthy manifesto, My Twisted World. But the cult of “Saint Elliot” — as his more fervent fans like to call him — is still going strong.
Elliot Rodgers, also known simply as ER by his admirers, has emerged as the patron saint of online misogynists. His likeness has inspired countless memes that straddle the line between lulzy irony and utter sincerity (one widely circulated picture depicts him as a literal saint, his face Photoshopped into a religious painting). ER’s admirers on 4chan and Reddit also celebrate “Saint Elliot Day” on May 23, the anniversary of his murder spree. Others write strange tribute songs to honor their murderous hero. There are Elliot Rodger T-shirts, and Elliot Rodger T-shirt unboxing videos.
You can find the piece here.
I think your link has an error in it – one too many h?
The article link isn’t working. Looks like there’s an extra h in the http.
You put an extra ‘h’ into the link. The article is here: https://amp.thecut.com/2018/04/incel-meaning-rebellion-alex-minassian-elliot-rodger-reddit.html
Link’s broken.
EDIT: Ninja’d.
Emailed him. He sometimes doesn’t check the comments for a while.
Wow, David. You’re burnin’ up the place. I bet your inbox has been full of request for comment. It’s really likely that you are a leading expert on this stuff. Like, in the world.
Years of hard work and slogging through miserable hate are paying off for you, I hope! I hope your effort has good effects in the world, and that you are nicely rewarded for it.
Your works are finally seeing their way to the eyes of many who need to know the threat that the manosphere and incels pose. And better yet you offer actual solutions to counter any narratives of invincibility.
ooops, fixed the link!
It stinks that we need an expert on this stuff — but I’m glad that since we do, it’s you.
????
Thanks for all your work educating the mainstream media about the cult of misogyny known as the incel movement. It is so important to have people like you, I am very grateful. I was able to share the G&M article on another forum which I think was super helpful to those trying to wrap their minds around what the heck is wrong with those people.
So nice to see you getting the credit you deserve for diving down all these weird-ass rabbit holes. And nice, too, to see these mascufascist terror groups starting to get addressed as such by major media.
From one of the men quoted in David’s article:
So despite the fact that he’s attractive and rich, he can’t date. And it never occurs to him that the fact that he wants to kill people because they are happier than him might suggest that he is the story of guy who sets off women’s mental alarms? They’re always convinced that no one can tell they have this hatred inside, not realising that even though other people might not know the details of what’s inside their heads, humans and especially women have a finely-tuned ability to spot when someone is ‘off’.
I mean, Martin Shkreli is also very handsome and ostentatiously rich, and it didn’t work great for him in the end. But then this fellow probably considers Shkreli a role model. *shudder*
David, excellent job on these articles. I am greatly saddened your expertise has become necessary, but good to know it is you folks are turning to.
I’m so sorry that you have to slog through this stuff. You wrote an amazing article, one that was needed and many thank you. Women need to be aware that they need to be careful, not just of men on dark deserted streets, but of men or boys in classically safe spaces too…classrooms, churches and clubs.
I’m not sure how you do it. I get off here feeling dirty and angry after reading about male entitlement and toxic masculinity that leads to violence and murder.
@Jo
I’unno, sounds like typical male-llenial entitlement to me.
(/s, kinda?)
You’re not wrong, but I don’t think the take-away from this article or this event should be “Wow, WOMEN really need to be careful!”