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Inceldom FAQ: Difference between revisions
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→Is inceldom related to the alt-right?: Added more nuance and detail
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==Is [[inceldom]] related to the alt-right?== | ==Is [[inceldom]] related to the alt-right?== | ||
In terms of the (scant) evidence examining this topic directly, a 2022 study by [[William Costello]] found that "[i]n contrast to stereotypes, incels are ''not'' more right-wing than the control group."<ref>https://osf.io/tnf7b/</ref> This study measured the professed political attitudes of a sample of incels from varied (but unnamed) incel forums and online chatrooms as compared to a 'control group' of men. | |||
The reason for broadbrushing incel communities as right | In terms of forum user demographics, Whites seem somewhat underrepresented in the [[English incelosphere]], that is among the communities of self-identified incels people typically think of when they use the word 'incel'. (see the [[Demography of Incels|demography]] article). | ||
More broadly, when considering inceldom as a life condition that exists all over the world, it is also a truism that most incels are not White because Whites only make up around 11% of the world population.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20190510071328/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_people#Census_and_social_definitions_in_different_regions</ref> | |||
Other defenders of incels outside the [[alt-right]] also exist, e.g. | |||
The reason for broadbrushing incel communities as being alt-right likely stems from several causes. | |||
First, the alt-right and incel communities, being composed largely of young, terminally online people, often partake in a common 'meme culture' that developed on internal communities such as [[4chan]]. This includes the use of memes, tropes and phrases also commonly used by the alt-right. Some commentators, such as [[Angela Nagle]], have argued that a recent increase in male sexual frustration is a source of recruitment for the alt-right and pointed to incel cultures similar roots in a kind of irreverent online right wing-adjacent 'counterculture'.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_All_Normies</ref> | |||
Secondly, modern online 'incel culture' was heavily influenced by the [[manosphere]]. The manosphere is a term for a loose collection of male bloggers, pick-up artists, vloggers and authors who discuss(ed) men's issues from a generally anti-feminist perspective. Their ideas gained prominence around the early 2010s, though most have faded to relative obscurity by now. | |||
The manosphere, despite originally being somewhat apolitical (with their roots in the pick-up artist subculture), eventually drifted over time to become more explicitly right-wing (in terms of the views of its more influential figures) and influential on the alt-right, particularly in terms of its arguments regarding female [[hypergamy]].<ref>https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/08/anti-feminism-gateway-far-right/595642/</ref> So there was indirect cross-pollination of ideas between the manosphere and the alt-right which indirectly influenced the subculture of online incels, which likely further contributes to outsider's impressions that incels are directly related to the alt-right. | |||
Thus, many self-identified online incels share the general anti-feminist views of the alt-right, and both are responding to the same broad social issues being raised by secular increases in celibacy in some Western countries in their own way, albeit often influenced (consciously or not) by strains of thought that have influenced both, such as Manospherian writings. Despite this, these incel communities and the alt-right are clearly distinct groups. When certain incels in these communities do identify explicitly as alt-right, this has naturally lead to tensions, largely owing to the evident ethnic heterogeneity of incel forums. | |||
Another reason that people conflate incels and the alt-right may be that alt-right commentators have generally proven to be among the few politically active people willing to openly defend incels. These figures include [[Roger Devlin]] (who popularized the concept of hypergamy), the prominent neo-nazi [[Andrew Anglin]], and the person credited with coining the phrase 'alt-right' himself, [[Andy Nowicki]] (who calls himself a 'low-status man'<ref>https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48516214-a-final-solution-to-the-incel-problem</ref>}. They may defend incels for several reasons, either to attract disaffected men to their cause, because they profess anti-feminist and pro-natalist views they perceive incels also hold, because they are sexually frustrated men themselves (if this predicts political extremism), or because they have a similar personality type to some of the more prominent and vocal online incels, and thus feel an affinity with them in that way. | |||
Other defenders of incels outside the [[alt-right]] also exist, e.g. Angela Nagle, various [[MRA]]s, and the rest of the people in [[:Category:Incelists|this list]]. Though, these defeners seem scant among the modern 'woke' left, apart from certain sex-positive feminists who promote legal prostitution in areas where this is illegal (if one sees this as a palliative to inceldom) or the provision of subsidized prostitutes to disabled men (who are probably disproportionately incel). Thus, as political liberals or leftists seem broadly more hostile to incels than the modern right in general, it is also possible they conflate incels with the alt-right to attack them, via identifying with their political enemies. This line of criticism would further serve to conflate incels and the alt-right in the eyes of many. | |||
==Are incels narcissists?== | ==Are incels narcissists?== | ||