If you haven't noticed, there's a disturbing new trend of misogyny-inspired murder in the headlines. It started when Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured 14 others before killing himself in Isla Vista, CA, in 2014, leaving a manifesto about his "Incel" motivations. After Rodger introduced the world to a dark Internet subculture, his fellow "Incels" quickly awarded him iconic status. There followed other Incel-inspired mass killings such as Chris Harper-Mercer's 2015 rampage at Umpqua Community College in Oregon that killed nine and injured eight; Alek Minassian's 2018 Toronto massacre in which he used his van to kill 10 and injure 14; and Scott Beierle's Hot Yoga Studio attack in Tallahassee, FL, that left two women dead and injured four women and a man. Even the infamous Parkland killer, Nikolas Cruz, who gunned down 17 people and injured 17 more at Stoneman Douglas High School, posted online that "Elliot Rodger will not be forgotten." What is this Incel madness? Incel is short for "involuntary celibate," and these women-hating souls (almost exclusively white male heterosexuals) believe they are entitled to sex yet are being denied by women and society. They gather in Internet forums (notably Reddit) of shared misery but go beyond commiserating with each other over not being able to get a date. Incels glorify violence against sexually active women, harassment of women, and catfishing of women. Some warp concepts such as biological determinism, evolutionary psychology, and female hypergamy (that 80% of women desire only the top 20% of most attractive men) to justify their anger. But mostly they talk about their looks, penis size, loneliness, suicide, sex robots, rape, etc. And they cheer men who take revenge for sexual deprivation by killing people. This social media-enabled misogyny should be driving more national concern. The Incel subculture is just beginning to catch the notice of mystery authors--for example Lori A. Witt's 2018 debut Incel about a male-female detective team investigating a series of murders connected to Incel Internet forums. Meanwhile, though free speech lets Incels rant, I would urge media, law enforcement, legislators, and social media platforms to raise the alarm and focus on monitoring and intervention before the death toll goes higher. For Witt's novel, see https://www.amazon.com/Incel-Walker-Arruda-Book-1-ebook/dp/B07GLXGC45
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