Spotting Incels in the Wild

Ex-PH2 recently posted about the Air Force’s warning about incels. This is a group of men, usually socially and romantically unsuccessful, who generally tend to blame women in society for their lot in life.

Jonn posted an article about Alek Minassian, the man that drove a van into a crowd of people. Some here sarcastically remarked about members of specific Christian denominations becoming restless. Could it be the Amish? Quakers?

Then, one of our Canadian friends, or someone privy to Canadian issues, dispelled the Islamic terrorist attack suspicions.

A virgin, angry at women for his not having sex, took his frustration out with a van. Using it as a weapon, he plowed into a crowd of people. He was specifically aiming for groups of women. However, males were also injured. He ranted about an Incel rebellion to overthrow the “Chads” and “Stacys”.

From ABC:

“The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”

He identified himself as a private, wanting to talk to a Sergeant 4Chan. The later, 4Chan, is a website that has topics that attract virgins.

Both Alek Minassian and Elliot Rodger entered our radar based on their horrific acts. Elliot Rodger left a manifesto, which some incels treat as a bible. Naturally, for us, our attention focused back on fakers., embellishers, trolls, TAH detractors, and on other normal TAH topics as time moved on.

Incel Community Origins

Today, men populate commonly known incel forums and subreddits. The community is associated with men. However, it had a different origin.

A woman founded the first known incel community. In the 1990s, she started a community consisting of “Involuntary Celibates”. She intended it to be a support group. And, it started out as such. It consisted of people who were socially awkward, people who had the wrong attitudes about women, people who needed help interacting with others, etc.

Despite these differences, the community had a support nature to it.

The woman got better on the social front. This presumably led to the end of her being an incel. She turned the site over to another member of the community, then she moved on with her life. After she left the community, both the movement and social media continued to evolve.

The movement itself shifted from that of a real support organization to one where frustrated men vented. Rodger and Minassian’s actions helped radicalize the community even further.

The Incel Community Today

The internet offers incels options with regards to forums and subreddits. These sites serve as platforms for incels to share their opinions about the women that reject them, the men that “kiss up” to these women, nonvirgin men, feminism, etc. Regardless of what forum they are in, they have “icons” that they identify with.

Elliot Rodger wasn’t the first to deal with his virginity by taking his frustrations out on his eventual victims. However, he killed women at a time when social media was already underway. Many incels consider Elliot Rodger as a martyr. Some call him, “Supreme Gentleman,” others call him “Saint Elliot Rodger”.

When Incels say, “Going ER”, they’re talking about doing what Elliot Rodger did.

Their “Patron Saint” is someone they’ve nicknamed, “StBlackOps2Cel”, for “Saint Block Ops II Celibate”. Incels snagged his photo from a website, then co-opted it based on their assumption that he was also an incel. They didn’t know him, but they elevated him and spoke of him as if he was their savior.

Incel sites are known for misogyny, radicalism, desire for sex with teens, etc. Not all of the members are radicals, nor do they share all the above views. However, the rhetoric on those sites tends to have a radicalizing effect on some of their members.

Incel Terminology

Incels rate people based on a 10-point Likert scale describing appearance. With “1” being the lowest, and “10” being the highest. Ergo, “1” is the “ugliest” and “10” is the “most attractive/handsome”.

Chad: A “Chad” is a male that rates 8 to 10 on the appearance scale. Chad references a white male. His black counterpart is labeled “Tyrone”. His counterpart from the Mediterranean area is labeled “Xavier”. His Asian counterpart is called “Chang”.  They have other terminologies for counterparts from other nationalities and ethnicities.

They identify Chad as a sexually and socially successful male who has no problems getting females. Women ranging from 1 to 10 want Chad, regardless of his attitude. Chad has specific physical features that cause him to be a “chick magnet”. Incels put his height at least 6-feet tall.

Brad: A “Brad” is a male that’s from 6 to 7 on the above scale. Brads are sometimes called “Chad-lite”. Incels, believing that all women want “Chad”, argue that “Brad” is just a place holder until his Stacy or Becky wife/girlfriend can hook up with Chad. Then, he will either be dumped or be “cucked”.

Norm/Normie: A “Norm” is someone ranging from 4-5 on the above appearance scale.

Failed Normie: Three on the appearance scale.

Subhuman: An ugly person. This is where Incels place themselves. Regardless of what their family tells them about their actual appearance. These Incels think that society sees them as subhuman/ugly.

Stacy: This is a female that scores an 8-10 on the attractiveness scale. She is usually a blonde white woman. She’s a “bimbo” who doesn’t want anything to do with “Norm” but may temporarily settle for “Brad” until a “Chad” comes along. Then she will “cuck” all other men.

Becca/Becky: A “Becky” is a woman that ranges from a 6-7 on the attractiveness scale. Not as attractive as a Stacy, she doesn’t necessarily possess the “eye candy” look. However, she’s still above average in looks and attracts her list of orbiters (male hopefuls).

Norma: Female Normie/Norm.

Sub 8/Sub Eight: 1-7 on attractiveness/handsomeness scale. Stacy does not want to have anything to do with “sub eights”. However, she may link up with “Brad” until “Chad” comes along. If she marries “Brad”, then meets “Chad”, she would “cuck” Brad and have sex with Chad instead.

Looks match: A man, and a woman, who rate the same on the appearance scale. Incels argue that women should focus on going out with men who are their “looks match”.

Orbiter: Men in the friend zone who have no chances of having sex with the woman that they “orbit”. They try anyway. Example, men who post responses to an original post by a woman. These men try to gain “points” with her. If any of these “orbiters” stick up for a woman’s opinion, in her defense, these “orbiters” are labeled as “numales”.

Numales: White knight.

Cuck: Based on cuckold. The traditional meaning isn’t the complete definition. Had sex with a woman who didn’t lose her virginity to you? You’re a “cuck”. On social media trying to gain points with a woman? You’re a “cuck”. Friend-zoned? Cucked. Facebook is sometimes referred to as “cuck-book”.

Wagecucking: Earning money for the government to tax. Tax money is needed to help support “Stacy’s” and “Chad’s” children after “Chad” dumps “Stacy”.

Incel Categories

Incels categorize themselves into different subgroups. White incels see themselves as “whitecels”. Black incels label themselves “blackcels”. Short incels tend to identify as “shortcel’s or manlets”.

A person posting as an incel, suspected of not being an incel, is flagged as a “fakecel”. They’re usually banned from the forum. Likewise, an incel who wouldn’t have sex with a woman if she’d be willing to have sex with him, but is usually not his type, is labeled as a “volcel”, or voluntarily celibate.

Sometimes, they would post a picture of an ugly woman, then say, “Volcel if you wouldn’t.”

Although women and gays can also be involuntarily celibate, most incels refuse to recognize this fact. According to them, any woman, or gay male, could have sex just for the asking. However, those who do recognize their existence will call the women “femcels” and the gays “gaycels”.

A person seeing a prostitute, who is otherwise an incel, is called a “whorecel”.

Blaming Appearance, not Attitude

Many of these Incels believe that they have a natural or artificial obstacle that permanently disadvantages them in the romance game. Usually, their perceived physical flaws, a societal norm against them, feminist “falsehoods” related to the incels, etc., permanently give them a bad deck of cards to play with.

However, if you’ve came across a guy, and through his actions he made you wonder if women didn’t want anything to do with him, you may have come across an incel. You would recognize that his attitude is his worst enemy.

If you try to point this out to him, he may get hostile. Or, he would insist on a perceived obstacle listed above as to why he isn’t having luck.

Think of the males you’ve known who avoided social interaction. Instead, they engaged in activities with limited to no interaction. Not all men in this category are single or have no luck with women. But many of them, not developing their social game, end up consistently finding failure when trying to pick women up.

Many of these incels tend to spend a lot of time with electronics. Many spend time with games, with messing with their phones, or with engaging in something related to technology. Now, not everybody that does this is without a girlfriend. However, many that do this spend little time doing real social interaction and learning.

Refusing to see their attitude as being their obstacle, they tend to do the same things while expecting different results. As a result, they keep failing to achieve social/sexual success.

The man in this video nicely represents the color the incels identify with. The man’s repetitive movement, resulting in the same results, nicely represents incels repeating the same mistakes via not recognizing the true source of their problems.

Many of these incels argue that the government should step in and correct these injustices against them. They’ve called for the government to stand up a “government instituted girlfriend program“. This is a program that requires women, no older than 29, to report to a government entity. From there, get dispersed to virgin men, or to men who have not had sex in at least six months. These women would be required to spend time doing the incel’s bidding.

Some may ask, why not go see an escort, or go to Nevada? For incels, this isn’t just about the sex. It’s also about having the “loving relationship”, and the emotions that come with the relationship. Incels that do see escorts, or who go to a brothel, identify as “escortcels” or “whorecels”. It appears to be the only way that those, having sex, could remain within the incel community. Otherwise, they would be identified as “fakecels” then banned from the community.

Many of the arguments that they advance make them the male counterparts to the “femnazi”. They are misogynistic, and advocate laws that would essentially strip women of their rights and return them to the status they had centuries ago. Incels lament the fact that women have rights, which includes the option to reject specific men.

If you come across a post, where someone is trash talking women, you might have an Incel. If you read about a mass shooting, and most of the victims are women, the shooter might be an incel. However, not all incels are violent, not all would advocate for carrying out violence. Unfortunately, a global voice increases the chances that someone would get “radicalized”.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that they will all end up committing violence. However, by sticking with others with similar complaints as them, they reinforce their assumptions regarding perceived injustices. Mainly, they are not getting women because of the obstacles listed above. Many incels believe that there is “nothing” wrong with their demeanor or attitude. The problem exists with women or society.

Chad versus Incel Meme

Brian Clyde posted a “Chad versus incel meme” focusing on mass shooting. This meme is one that compares a “Chad” with an “Incel”. It takes the social and sexual success of “Chad” and substitutes something else for it. The meaning is usually the same. Then, right next to the characters representing “Chad” and “Incel”, they would write the characteristics that would make them either the “Chad” or the “Incel”.

We could presumably build one of these memes involving a “Chad TAH commenter” versus the “Incel sock puppet” arguing for an exposed faker. Some labels for the “Chad TAH commenter” would include: deploys […] of insults, has military experience, references official records, etc. And, for the “Incel sock puppet”: phony in disguise, gets mad when called out, demands post be taken down, threatens legal action, etc.

Clyde’s meme showed an example of how a “Chad” mass shooter would do things compared to how an “Incel” mass shooter would perform. Presumably, with “Chad” causing all sorts of damage and deaths compared to the smaller accomplishments of the Incel mass shooter. Ironically, Clyde slotted himself into the “Incel” side of the meme.

Here’s a video describing this meme.

Additional Reading

Incels Categorize Women by Personal Style and Attractiveness by Vox.

Alek Minassian claims to have started the incel rebellion by ABC News.

More about Alek Minassian by Click on Detroit.

Additional incel types on Reddit, Chad versus Incel subreddit.

Incel terms/definitions posted to Incel Tears subreddit.

Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto.

If you want to watch them in their own forums, simply search “Incel forums” and “Incel subreddits” in your search engine.

Tags: incel, incels

Category: Society