Incels at The End of The World
It's way bigger than sexual hangups.
The other week, I came across a long post from a guy in his 20s who got violently upset at work when a girl he had a crush on mentioned her boyfriend. In what followed, he cursed his fate at having to constantly bear witness to other people’s happiness as he suffers the agonies of solitude. He doesn’t quite articulate it like that. He focuses on the emotional toll of having to be around a beautiful woman he can’t have sex with, but it’s deeper than that.
It always is.
Whenever I write about a topic like this, a handful of people always tap me on the shoulder and condescend. They say things like, “There’s more important things to focus on.” I’ve wondered about that.
Here’s my answer:
It all matters.
Toxic train wrecks matter. Bird flu matters. The war in Ukraine matters. Our escalating tensions with China matter. The relentless sky dumps of carbon matter. Economic equality matters.
So do incels.
In fact, I would even say there’s a bit of dystopian despair underlying the growing in…