Incel

Scott was on the brink of divorce when he started talking to Sarina. The 41-year-old soon found himself falling in love. Reinvigorated by his new romance, ...

“The incel has will but he lacks power, so he manifests his power through ideology, through fascism,” one of his videos explains. They’re just “a ragtag bunch of internet weirdos” without any agenda, who want to change the online landscape so that they can enjoy it more. But the need to give one’s life meaning, the call to heroism and adventure, is still alive and well in all of us. You just go on to the next part of the quest. He laughs, and then acknowledges that a staggering proportion of e-girls talk about having the disorder “compared to normie spaces”. Another member of the collective is Tanner, who is edgier than both Flan and Crooner, with an ironic sensibility and a penchant for shitposting. There is clearly hunger for the “hero pill”. The Marvel Universe, and fantasy programming in general, is endlessly expanding. I managed to crawl out of it myself, so I feel I may have a few insights that might help.” He is producing a series of YouTube videos based on an 800-tweet thread. “They’ve been more real to me than IRL girls, in a way, if that makes sense, in the space they take up in my imagination,” he says with direct, cheerful conviction. Flandalff the White is one of Crooner’s friends, and his aims are similar, though he is more private. He wanted to study the philosophy of AI. “They play these roles, maybe a Rapunzel type, or the manic pixie, the chaotic e-girl, who compels the boy to save her.