Support for violence to resist feminism was highest among adolescent boys (28%), followed closely by adolescent girls (21%).
Perhaps most alarming: roughly 40% of boys aged 13 to 17 agreed that women lie about domestic and sexual violence.
These results raise crucial questions going forward. We don’t yet know how these views have changed over time, whether they are on the rise and what the links are between violent extremism and the negative treatment of women.
The concerning thing to me is not the numbers themselves but the way kids with no other obvious connections to hate (e.g. my father is a wife-beating neo-Nazi) are developing these belief systems through unrestricted exposure to the internet. It’s part of a much bigger problem that includes things like religious extremism and racism. In many cases they aren’t going out of their way to find these rabbit holes, either. Social media algorithms recommend Andrew Tate type shit and then bombard their feed with even more of that stuff after the first watch, and adults would never know until the kid gets to the point where it’s developed into a core life philosophy for them and is affecting their real world behaviour. This can happen at any age, of course, but it’s just sadder to me when it’s young, impressionable minds that are being taken advantage of.
Questionable methodologies aside, I think you’re right about this and it’s an important point. So many people want to treat misogyny like it’s the personal failing of individuals, when the problem is radicalization. People act like these are inherently disturbed people who would have arrived at their hateful opinions no matter what influences they were exposed to. That’s basically an essentialist take and doesn’t acknowledge the complexities of human psychology and development.
You can’t address a cultural or societal issue at merely the individual level, because it’s like rescuing starfish from tide pools. For every one that you save, there’s always a million more. And personal shaming doesn’t help the situation at all.
So many young men and adolescent boys are vulnerable to this radicalization because they’ve been ostracized from their peer groups. They commiserate about their situations with others like themselves. And these predatory manosphere influencers know this and they capitalize on it.
People throw around “incel” like it’s not only an insult, but also this morally repugnant and irredeemable sort of subhuman thing. How does that encourage anyone to self-examine and decide to do better? Society has already rejected them and made it clear that it will never open its doors to them again. And it even emphasizes that it’s outside of their control, i.e. involuntary.
How is that supposed to cultivate healthier views of women? It’s literally telling men “You’re worthless because you can’t get laid.” How do you expect them to react to that in any way other then “Oh gee, then I guess I’d better learn how to get laid.” And then they start down an algorithmic rabbit hole of “dating coaches” and pick-up artists which sucks them into the manosphere grift.
Every time I see “incel” used as an insult or approbation I flinch a little, because it only cements the demise of healthy gender relations a little more each time.
These people started as socially awkward weirdos and loners. They were bullied and ostracized, and turned to the only spaces where they felt accepted. It’s no wonder they wound up being negged and radicalized by predatory grifters.
I’ve pointed this out multiple times all along the way while witnessing this slow downfall, and people always say the same things. “Redpill/blackpill chud INCEL, no one likes you, these people aren’t worth defending, no one healthy or reasonable would let themselves be radicalized, or maybe if they weren’t inherently flawed they wouldn’t be friendless to begin with, etc. etc. etc.” and it all boils down to the same thing: conform or die; the friendless deserve no pity.
It’s fucking hopeless…