Plymouth Shootings: Incel

[Howl]

The Guardian reported on the Plymouth, England shooting; a young man and avowed incel with a long history of social media posts highlighting his toxic misogyny killed his mother, four others (including a 3-year-old child) and wounded two more. 

Plymouth shooting: police urged to take misogyny more seriously  Gunman who killed five regularly expressed hatred of women but had firearms licence reinstated in July

Although this type of incident would be just *another day, another mass shooting* in the US, it is shocking in Britain.  I'm linking the article because the take is so different than how it is dealt with in the US: 

Nazir Afzal [previous chief crown prosecutor for north-west England] raised the prospect that extreme views about women could be treated as terrorism. “You have got to think about how we deal with these men, and they are always men. What are they saying online, how are they being radicalised, who is doing the radicalisation?” Afzal said on BBC Breakfast on Saturday.

The shooter had also lost his firearms license over a previous assault, but it was re-instated in spite of his toxic social media posts. 

Today I came across this twitter thread: 

 

Here's the full thread (quick read) 

Quote

While incels are in the news again it’s important to remember
- concerns were raised about this over two decades ago
- Black women raised the alarm
- journalists were asked to address problems both documenting incels and their own poor sex and relationships writing, but avoided 

Not just concerns about incels but worries about poor sex and relationships education, lack of parental supervision/awareness online, PUAs, g*mer**te, the far right and more, and all amalgamations of these. 

Journalists may want to cover this now, because it’s “news” not recognising there’s a long history of growing problems and a legacy of many people who tried to raise concerns and in many cases were dismissed as killjoys and prudes (particularly in the early to mid noughties). 

So many complex factors cause these issues that need attention and funding. It’s not a simple cause or simple fix. But it isn’t something that should be ignored. And it causes huge heartbreak and harm. 

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by Coconut Flan

[samurai_sarah]

This is ansolutely appaling. And entirely pointless. And horrible for the families the victims leave behind.

All this grief, because some guy couldn't get laid? Because he didn't look like what he perceives as a Chad, instead of being a good person? That's a reason to murder? Because his entitled little self didn't get what he wanted? As if anyone owes him anything?

In the words of Monty Python: I fart in your general direction.

Edited August 14, 2021 by samurai_sarah
Riffle

[Ozlsn]

16 hours ago, Howl said:

Although this type of incident would be just *another day, another mass shooting* in the US, it is shocking in Britain. 

It makes me so sad that this wouldn't be shocking and major news in the US. I hadn't heard about this until now, and it's horrible.

 

[47of74]

A threat assessment has been done on incels by the Secret Service

Quote

Now, threat assessment experts with the US Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center are using the Tallahassee murder-suicide to bring greater understanding to the threat posed by so-called involuntarily celibate men, often referred to as "incels."

The Secret Service's report showed Beierle had regularly written about and engaged in violence toward women. "The Hot Yoga Tallahassee attacker was motivated to carry out violence by his inability to develop or maintain relationships with women, along with his perception of women's societal power over men," said Steven Driscoll, the assistant director of the National Threat Assessment Center.

One theme the report points to is Beierle facing a lack of consequences. For example, the report notes that he had been charged multiple times with battery, but charges were dropped. Other behavior threat assessment themes the Secret Service identified included failed aspirations, lack of financial stability, bizarre behavior, harassment and homicidal ideations.

Researchers noted that Beierle's behavior was extreme and reflected a combination of misogyny and White supremacy, highlighting the need for more studies on male supremacy as a motivating ideology.

 

[Alisamer]

I'm glad the Secret Service has done a threat assessment on this.

What is it about some men that makes them violent like this? If a woman can't get a man, she doesn't go shooting people, she usually ends up focusing on hobbies and work, maybe gets a cat, and does her best to enjoy the life she's got. But it seems that some men, who probably could have relationships with women if they'd work on their personalities a little, seem to double down into hate. Like that one dude in California - Elliott Rodger?  He was reasonably attractive, young, had money and a nice car. And he kept making videos about how great he was and how attractive he was and how nice his car was. Every time I've seen clips of one of his videos I've wanted to go shake him and yell "you'd have women falling all over you if you weren't a concieted asshole and would make the slightest effort to actually meet a woman!" Like if he'd developed a friend group, been genuine and personable, and treated women like actual people he'd have likely had no problems. But instead he isolated himself and sat alone and stewed, making video after video about how much he hated basically everyone else in the universe except himself. Like that's attractive. 

It seems like many of the ones who become killers aren't incels because of their looks, necessarily, so much as the fact that they are awful people. They seem to expect perfect beautiful women to appear out of thin air and worship the ground they walk on while giving up sex whenever they want it, with no effort on the guy's part at all. But they never get that it's them. It's always them. They isolate themselves, won't speak to a woman (except maybe using bad pickup artist lines), they treat the women they encounter badly, they think way too highly of themselves and seem to have no real identity other than "guy who can't get laid and is mad about it"... and then are surprised when women aren't interested in them.