On 24 February 2020, a young man entered a massage parlour in Toronto, carrying a sword with ‘Thot Slayer’ written on it, and stabbed a 24-year-old receptionist to death. After he was overpowered by other salon staff, a handwritten note was found that read: ‘Long live the incel rebellion’. Attacks like these make it clear that the incel phenomenon, even if it is primarily characterised online, poses a misogynistic threat in the real world.
The incel scene and thus its potential danger is growing. Incel-ideologically motivated acts of violence reflect the increasing radicalisation and point to the need for action to meet this challenge. The aim of this analysis is to identify and evaluate key characteristics of the incel community. To this end, a basic socio-cultural description of the scene is first provided, which is supplemented with a clinical perspective in order to draw a general picture of incels. The ideological foundation of the incels will then be outlined, which is primarily based on the socio-sexual hierarchy, radical misogyny and the doctrine of ‘pills’. The Blue Pill-, Red Pill- and Black Pill ideologies are at the centre of this. In addition, the question of how widespread right-wing extremist narratives are within the scene will be addressed. This aspect will be of importance in the following section when it is shown how the transfer of misogynistic narratives from incel forums via the manosphere to social media takes place. This makes it clear how incel ideological facets move into the wider society and influence the discourse. The publication concludes with a categorisation of incel-ideological violence, as not every violent misogynistic crime can be attributed exclusively to incels, but the ideological facets can often influence an act.
Internet-savvy, younger men who define themselves as incels are a growing danger. Incel-related criminal and violent acts illustrate this immensely and personal overlaps with the Red Pill community underline the potential for radicalisation of young adults through social media. Intensive and performance-orientated engagement with the problem by politicians, security authorities and social media operators is therefore irreplaceable.
Read the entire study ‘In|vo|lun|ta|ri|ly ce|li|ba|te (Incel)’ here as a PDF. Please note, to date the analysis is only available in German.
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