Deleted member 34920
How do I change my username
-
- Joined
- May 29, 2021
- Posts
- 79
I was wondering what you guys think of it:
I know loneliness and isolation, and I felt bad for them.
That was, of course, until I actually looked at the community. "r/Incels," was the most abhorrent place I'd ever been, and I still doubt I've topped it. The pain of loneliness is so real, but instead of being a help-group for pain, it was a slew of misogyny, racism, hatred, rape apologetics, suicide-encouragement, anger...there was no single redeeming thing about that community, and that's not something I've ever said before.
And yet, for whatever reason, I found myself going back. Like Herod, who secretly loved to listen to John the Baptist, I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from the train wreck of Incels. It was everything I hated: shoddy or nonexistent logic, inhumanity / lack of compassion for others, refusal to get help or even admit they needed it...It was people who lived purely in a fantasy land, and I found it fascinating.
I think, counterintuitively, it was very good for me that I did. I have a friend or two in real life who espouse what I would call "light" intel views: One a computer programmer who almost never leaves his room and is bitter that women won't show up and date him somehow; the other a slightly jaded ex-athlete who thinks that sex is about the only worthwhile pursuit in life.
Seeing the terminal dead end of intel philosophy helped me to identify it and gently challenge the traces of it in my friends (counter to my online persona, I can actually be somewhat diplomatic irl! )
Still to this day I enjoy r/IncelTears somewhat, because you can open the sub and just be like "okay boys, what utter insanity are we in for today!"
In my time, I have noticed that maybe 0.001% of incels are religious: and the one or two that are seem to be attracted to a bizarrely intense form of "fire and brimstone" Christianity that is neither profound, accurate, or based on the New Testament.
I do not think this is an accident.
Having made somewhat of an amateur study of this...cultural phenomenon, I believe the Gospel has EVERYTHING to offer an incel: I would without reservation call it the best cure.
Consider these things, which I believe would happen in order:
a) A new worldview in which sex is drastically deflated. Authentic Christianity does not hold sex up as a major activity you should be constantly doing or trying to obtain. Even though sex is exalted as beautiful and spiritually significant, it is not treated as something that you should be working towards in middle school for example, and it does not teach you to derive your self worth from that.
b) A new channel for their intensity. I remember reading a story about a monk who had formerly been a Satanist (like a sacrificing animals one, not a LeVeyan atheist one) and someone asked him if that was a big change: satanism to a MONASTERY. He told the reporter that the fact was he was an intense sort of person by nature, if he was going to be a non-Christian, he'd be sacrificing goats to Satan, if he was going to be a Christian, he was going to follow Jesus' precepts to the letter, giving away all he had to the poor. I sense a lot of that in incels. They are intense people, and they direct that intensity into hating women, hating themselves, obsessing over sex. They need something equally intense to put all of that into. Normal, quotidian "be a respectful person" does not offer something that they respect: they look with disdain on the idea. It's clear to me that they need an equally high intensity channel.
c) A new worldview within which to understand women. "In Christ there is neither male nor female," and who is the greatest of all the Saints? Mary! Women were the apostles to the apostles, women are routinely held up in the New Testament as exemplars of the early Church. The idea that women manipulate men using sex will slowly dissipate when you consider the many nuns and holy women who did not do that.
d) A new worldview within which to understand virginity. Paul praises virginity, as do (universally) the early doctors of the Church, the mystics, philosophers, and writers. So much of the incel's awful views will change when they stop hating themselves, and if they begin to see virginity as a holy and praiseworthy thing, they will be able to get over some of that internal loathing.
The Gospel is pure life to everyone, but I believe incels are seriously, desperately in need of it. They may hate and despise religion (except for a nutty, ultra-strict love of Sharia Law) but it is exactly what they need. Imagine if they learned to make love of neighbour the highest good. Imagine if they learned to imitate Jesus. Imagine if they learned to abandon their fantasies of what they worry life is like, and began living God's truth in the real world.
In some ways, I still feel pity for them. They are trapped in a pit of hatred, and admittedly the hatred is of their own making, but imagine if they could escape. How happy they would be!
Someone has to do it, I say. I doubt I'd make a good evangelist, as I tend to get short tempered when people use poor logic, and for sure there would be a TON of that in the beginning...
Someone's Gotta Be Evangelist to the Incels
When I first heard the term "incel" maybe a year ago, I first felt compassion. I'm very ugly, and as a result normally ignored / passed over / underrated in terms of trustworthiness and capability. Moreover I've seen first hand how insane Hook Up culture is: and in places (like colleges) where sex is a major, major source of social capital, to feel "left out" must be painful.I know loneliness and isolation, and I felt bad for them.
That was, of course, until I actually looked at the community. "r/Incels," was the most abhorrent place I'd ever been, and I still doubt I've topped it. The pain of loneliness is so real, but instead of being a help-group for pain, it was a slew of misogyny, racism, hatred, rape apologetics, suicide-encouragement, anger...there was no single redeeming thing about that community, and that's not something I've ever said before.
And yet, for whatever reason, I found myself going back. Like Herod, who secretly loved to listen to John the Baptist, I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from the train wreck of Incels. It was everything I hated: shoddy or nonexistent logic, inhumanity / lack of compassion for others, refusal to get help or even admit they needed it...It was people who lived purely in a fantasy land, and I found it fascinating.
I think, counterintuitively, it was very good for me that I did. I have a friend or two in real life who espouse what I would call "light" intel views: One a computer programmer who almost never leaves his room and is bitter that women won't show up and date him somehow; the other a slightly jaded ex-athlete who thinks that sex is about the only worthwhile pursuit in life.
Seeing the terminal dead end of intel philosophy helped me to identify it and gently challenge the traces of it in my friends (counter to my online persona, I can actually be somewhat diplomatic irl! )
Still to this day I enjoy r/IncelTears somewhat, because you can open the sub and just be like "okay boys, what utter insanity are we in for today!"
In my time, I have noticed that maybe 0.001% of incels are religious: and the one or two that are seem to be attracted to a bizarrely intense form of "fire and brimstone" Christianity that is neither profound, accurate, or based on the New Testament.
I do not think this is an accident.
Having made somewhat of an amateur study of this...cultural phenomenon, I believe the Gospel has EVERYTHING to offer an incel: I would without reservation call it the best cure.
Consider these things, which I believe would happen in order:
a) A new worldview in which sex is drastically deflated. Authentic Christianity does not hold sex up as a major activity you should be constantly doing or trying to obtain. Even though sex is exalted as beautiful and spiritually significant, it is not treated as something that you should be working towards in middle school for example, and it does not teach you to derive your self worth from that.
b) A new channel for their intensity. I remember reading a story about a monk who had formerly been a Satanist (like a sacrificing animals one, not a LeVeyan atheist one) and someone asked him if that was a big change: satanism to a MONASTERY. He told the reporter that the fact was he was an intense sort of person by nature, if he was going to be a non-Christian, he'd be sacrificing goats to Satan, if he was going to be a Christian, he was going to follow Jesus' precepts to the letter, giving away all he had to the poor. I sense a lot of that in incels. They are intense people, and they direct that intensity into hating women, hating themselves, obsessing over sex. They need something equally intense to put all of that into. Normal, quotidian "be a respectful person" does not offer something that they respect: they look with disdain on the idea. It's clear to me that they need an equally high intensity channel.
c) A new worldview within which to understand women. "In Christ there is neither male nor female," and who is the greatest of all the Saints? Mary! Women were the apostles to the apostles, women are routinely held up in the New Testament as exemplars of the early Church. The idea that women manipulate men using sex will slowly dissipate when you consider the many nuns and holy women who did not do that.
d) A new worldview within which to understand virginity. Paul praises virginity, as do (universally) the early doctors of the Church, the mystics, philosophers, and writers. So much of the incel's awful views will change when they stop hating themselves, and if they begin to see virginity as a holy and praiseworthy thing, they will be able to get over some of that internal loathing.
The Gospel is pure life to everyone, but I believe incels are seriously, desperately in need of it. They may hate and despise religion (except for a nutty, ultra-strict love of Sharia Law) but it is exactly what they need. Imagine if they learned to make love of neighbour the highest good. Imagine if they learned to imitate Jesus. Imagine if they learned to abandon their fantasies of what they worry life is like, and began living God's truth in the real world.
In some ways, I still feel pity for them. They are trapped in a pit of hatred, and admittedly the hatred is of their own making, but imagine if they could escape. How happy they would be!
Someone has to do it, I say. I doubt I'd make a good evangelist, as I tend to get short tempered when people use poor logic, and for sure there would be a TON of that in the beginning...