Braincels

An example of a day on r/Braincels.

Braincels, or /r/braincels, was a blackpilled involuntary celibate community hosted on Reddit, which got banned by Reddit on September 30th 2019. The community was particularly known, similarly to /r/incels, for its devotion to Saint Blackops2cel, a man whose picture was believed to represent how a truecel might look in terms of appearance.

While it is difficult to know how many incels truly visited the site (since reddit allows anyone to 'subscribe' with the click of a button) the subreddit experienced 2 - 3 posts per minute and had a huge influx of lurkers. Braincels also produced more lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek content compared to other incel communities of present, largely consisting of memes in support of the blackpill and baits for /r/IncelTears. Even though the community was often stereotyped as being occupied by "angry White alt-right males", Braincels was highly racially and politically diverse, with especially Asians and Indians being overrepresented (see Demographics § Race). Following the ban of the site, most users moved to other incel forums.

There are various (incomplete) archives of Braincels that can be downloaded here.

Creation

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Braincels was created by AnathematicAnarchist before the ban of /r/incels. He was later forgotten by the 'community' until his posting of a suicide letter on May 20, 2018, after which he was embraced by many users. He has not posted since his letter. Given that a large number of suicides from r/Braincels have been tied to real Facebook accounts, it is likely that the creator of the sub did commit suicide.

First Major Moderator

The subreddit was occupied for the first half of it's life by the female head-moderator Board_Gaming, who repeatedly said she did not believe in the Blackpill, posted in Inceltears, and was quoted claiming to dislike incels. She has been believed to be autistic due to the nature of the vast majority of comments she made being of the form "I am not X" or "I do not X," which have gave rise to several mock accounts on the subreddit that imitated her. In October 2018, she stepped down as head-moderator and was replaced by u/IQ9K who appointed five new moderators to help him out. The forum then became more ban-heavy, masculinist, and content-restrictive.

Brigading

Braincels was regularly brigaded by members of IncelTears who have been rumored to post child pornography and other baits to get the forum shut down.

Positive Masculinity

The community was active throughout most of 2019 despite being quarantined by Reddit admins on September 27, 2018 because of misogyny. The day Braincels was quarantined Reddit gave a link to a feminist male studies organization telling incels to learn "positive masculinity," sparking many memes making fun of the term, "positive masculinity", for it's comically vague thought-police vibe.

Ironically, it later came to light that the founder of the male organization linked by Reddit, Michael Kimmel, was an alleged sexual assaulter, leading to much questioning as to whether or not Reddit meant "positive masculinity" to mean rape.

Banned from Reddit

The subreddit on September 30th 2019.

r/Braincels was banned from Reddit on September 30th 2019 for "posting content that harasses or bullies." Master, who became a mod of the subreddit a month before the ban, received a message notifying him of the closing. The message said that the creation of new subreddits to evade the ban was not allowed. The admins also mentioned that the content on Braincels was "materially incompatible" with new rules Reddit admins created. It’s believed that the admins created these new rules for the purpose of shutting down subreddits that didn't align with their ideology.

Political orientation

Contrary to popular belief, Braincels (as most incel communities) was not populated by alt-right users. These were often banned on sight.

See also

• /r/incels
• /r/incel
• /r/inceltears
• /r/truerateme