Canada’s deadliest vehicular ramming attack was sparked by an opaque Facebook post calling for an “involuntary celibate rebellion.” Minutes later, a young man drove a rental van down a busy Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 people and injuring 15 others. The strategy was initiated by Al Qaeda, supported by the Islamic State and welcomed by other jihadist terrorists. However, in this case, the attacks were carried out by people who held an entirely different ideology, namely violent misogyny associated with involuntary celibacy or involuntary people.
Incels are a group of “heterosexual men who blame women and society for their romantic failures.” Originally an online lonely hearts club for men and women, Incels as a group have grown into a pessimistic, misogynistic, men-only microculture. Early involuntary celibate attacks were not considered terrorism due to a lack of clear political motivation. However, as the movement grew and matured, their political motivations and influences began to coalesce into a nascent political platform centered on justifying male dominance and undermining women’s rights. The group thrives in the Manosphere, a collection of unmanageable websites, online chat rooms and blogs that create a digital ecosystem in which misogyny and anti-feminism become the norm. Graeme Wood writes: “These communities, like ISIS, become instruments of conscience-killing, and the lone losers within them become desensitized and ultimately morally inverted.”
In order to make sense of the world they inhabit, non-consensuals create a worldview that organizes society into gender hierarchies based on physical characteristics. The attractive male and female or “Chad” and “Stacey” are at the top, the average male and female or “Normal” and “Becky” are in the middle, and the unfortunate genetic loser or “Involuntary” is in the middle bottom. This unequal sexual hierarchy is the result of feminism and the sexual revolution, which gave women more autonomy in their choice of partners. Women—considered exploitative, superficial, manipulative, and essentially subhuman in the eyes of nonconsensuals—use access to sex as leverage to provide sexual services to attractive Chadians , use sex with normal people in exchange for material benefits, and completely refuse to have sex with non-consensual people.
Non-consensuals excluded from the sexual market believe that feminism and its funders deny them ready access to women’s bodies and prevent them from achieving the ideal lives described by patriarchal ideals. This worldview is called “TheRedPill”. People who are involuntarily celibate on TheRedPill know something about the existing feminism we live in, which exploits and oppresses men. Everyone else is considered BluePilled (i.e., blind to unequal systems and the plight of the involuntary.)
In order to help them escape from the domination of their beleaguered feminism, the involuntary adopt a set of strategies known as “hope, cope or rope”. “Hope” means that involuntarily celibate people have the opportunity to increase their attractiveness. This includes improving your appearance (looksmaxxing), going to the gym (gymmaxxing), making more money (moneymaxxing), and even getting a pet (petmaxxing). This option provides some agency to individual involuntary celibates, but does nothing to address their broader systemic grievances. Involuntarily celibate people can also “cope” with their situation by distracting themselves by playing video games, spending time on involuntary celibate forums, or consuming pornography, thereby reducing its negative impact on their lives. However, the result of this strategy is continued isolation and loneliness. The third strategy, “rope,” highlights the pessimism and despair behind many involuntary celibate ideologies. This choice is one in which a person abandons all efforts to improve his or her situation; that is, LDAR (lie down to rot) or commit suicide.
For most involuntarily celibate people, these three strategies are the cornerstone of their survival in a world they find, at best, unfair to themselves, and at worst, they feel Unbearable. However, for a few involuntarily celibate, a fourth option has emerged – rebellion. At this point, the involuntarily celibate turn their violent online fantasies into real-life actions, making the plight of the involuntarily celibate visible to the rest of the world.
The idea of an incel or beta rebellion is loosely based on this idea:
if we [Incels] Our problems cannot be solved, we must destroy our problems… One day, involuntary celibates will realize their true power and numbers and will overthrow this oppressive feminist system.
It started out as a fantasy, but as the Incel community developed, grew, and became more extreme through the emergence of TheBlackpill, the idea became more prominent. BlackPill retains the RedPilled worldview of Incels, but rejects any self-help approach, believing that no amount of effort can make up for bad genes. For those with black skin, the only solution is social change.
The desire for collective action among black-haired non-volunteers triggered the formation of a nascent sociopolitical ideology that could drive unified, possibly violent, political action. Previously, most discussions of involuntary celibate violence did not identify it as terrorism. At first glance, this is because involuntary celibacy lacks a political agenda. Speech on involuntary celibate forums revolves around expressions of personal dissatisfaction and rants directed at women, feminism and its supporters. But even here the seeds of violent political ideology are widespread. Incests want ordinary people (i.e. anyone but themselves) to suffer and live in constant fear. Some involuntarily celibate people openly advocate violence against civilians, encouraging one another to “go ER” or become “hERo” (emphasis on the initials of Elliot Rodger, a famous involuntary celibate A celibate who murdered six people in Isla Vista, California). As one involuntary celibate succinctly put it: “[T]This is a political movement, friends. We talk about how people act and how they should be governed, that’s politics. What makes this political movement particularly dangerous is that BlackPilled Incels feel they have little reason to live anymore. Therefore, they are often willing to terrorize society with death in order to resolve their predicament. The violent misogyny of involuntarily celibate people becomes deeply politicized by committing violence or threatening violence to impose their ideology on others.
Even terrorism experts who were initially skeptical of the threat posed by Incels now acknowledge that law enforcement and the counterterrorism community need to take them seriously. Beginning in 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the National Alliance for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), and the Anti-Defamation League all began to consider male supremacy an extremist ideology. In January 2019, a young man was arrested for planning a massacre at the Women’s March. The day before, he posted on Facebook, “I am planning on shooting in a public place… to kill as many girls as I see.” He eventually pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted threats of terrorism, which may have been The first terrorism-related conviction in the United States for an ideologically motivated crime involving involuntary celibacy. In 2020, a boy who described himself as an incel (Incel) was charged with terrorism after stabbing a woman to death in Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police emphasized that “terrorism comes in many forms and it is important to note that it is not limited to any particular group, religion or ideology.” In February 2021, ASIO acknowledged that terrorism on the left and right ideologies are no longer fit for purpose, it is necessary to recognize that niche issues are drivers of terrorist acts. Here, he specifically mentions violent misogynists like Incels. The growing recognition of involuntary celibate violence as political violence suggests that this is a group of actors with an emerging political footprint that must be taken into account.
Further reading on electronic international relations
