We Hunted The Mammoth
We live in an age unusually receptive to conspiracy theory — with a veritable army of QAnoners caught up in baroque, sadistic theories of retribution against political and cultural elites; with the vast majority of Republicans believing (or purporting to believe) that, actually, Donald Trump won the election; and with a cohort of Americans convinced that Bill Gates is planning to plant microchips in their bodies with a vaccine shot.
Incels, if they think about politics at all, tend to lean right — pretty far right in some cases. But there’s a distinct, if relatively tiny, bunch of incels who claim to be leftists and even Marxists. Let’s just say their version of Marxism bears little resemblance to the original flavor.
After ten years of writing about the manospehre, you’d think there wouldn’t be much these guys could say that would shock or surprise me any more. But incels keep lowering the bar, somehow managing to be worse than I expect on a regular basis.
I learn new things on Incels.co every day. Today I learned that only Chad babies are breastfed.
Today, what may be the cringiest attempt to slide into some unfortunate woman’s DMs that I’ve ever seen.
Today’s dose of recombinant paranoia comes from the Incels.co forums, where one inventive fellow has managed to combine anti-masker paranoia with fears of “incel genocide” into one unholy mess.
As this garbage year comes to a close, I thought I’d dig out some of my favorite posts from the past year. I think they’re all worth revisiting. Enjoy!
Incels think it’s the way they look, not the terrible things they think and say, that is driving women away from them. But over on Incels.co, one new member has what he thinks is a brilliant end run past the looks issue: what if incels decided to date blind women?
Self-identified incel Alek Minassian is currently on trial in Canada for the van attacks that killed ten in Toronto in 2018. His defense? That his autism made him do it, leaving him not criminally responsible for the killings.
