Lonely, Bitter, Self-Pitying, Misogyny Threats

"There are certain players involved with the problem of violent extremism and terrorism and they have specific roles."
"You've got an intelligence-gathering agency and law enforcement agencies, but there is a gap and that gap is related to prevention."
"Counter-violent extremist programming is about trying to prevent the escalation of those who are engaged with some kind of ideology that promotes violence from deciding to get up one day and do something about it -- like Minassian getting into a van."
John McCoy, executive director, Organization for the Prevention of Violence

"Individuals who associate with the incel movement appear more likely than the general population to self-report anxiety, depression and other mood disorders."
"While the violent fringe of the incel movement is being recognized as a threat, it is important to acknowledge the majority of incels are not violent and may be at a higher risk of self-harm than the general population."
"Overcoming these barriers and making support more accessible will be key to preventing further acts of violence."
Organization for the Prevention of Violence Report

"The Toronto van attack in 2018, and the more recent attack in February 2020, have put their capacity for real-world harm beyond doubt."
"It is also clear to anyone who spends time in these communities -- where both suicidal ideation and suicide itself are rampant -- incels also pose a significant threat to themselves."
The first step in understanding how to engage with these at-risk men is to understand how they communicate and share their world view."
Moonshot CVE, British deradicalization company

A tarp covers a body on Yonge Street at Finch Avenue after a van plowed into pedestrians on April 23, 2018, in Toronto. Cole Burston/Getty Image

The term incel describes someone who believes themselves to be 'involuntarily celibate', not a preferred condition, but one imposed upon these men who are unsuccessful in finding a female partner; victims they believe of society, by the order of society in which women have a tendency to be attracted to certain physical male types, leaving other men -- with inner qualities rather than presenting as handsome and masculine -- unattached.

Those identifying as incels have a vocabulary that describes their isolation as sexually unpreferred. They call themselves 'beta', as opposed to 'alpha' males; second-grade status, men whom woman bypass as undesirable. The archetypical attractive woman is called a 'Stacy', and sexually successful men are 'Chads' whom the incels consider unintelligent, while the greater mass of men of average appearance are called 'normies'.

The online presence of incels at online sites where they congregate, characterize them as indifferent to life, with suicide viewed as an escape from their discontent. There are frequent referrals to "the rope call" or "suifuel"; an event or something that has the effect of fueling a wish to end life. One forum for incels conducts periodic member polls, and in one recent such poll, 88 percent of respondents claimed to be unhappy.

Toronto Police Const. Kenny Lam is caught on video facing off against van attack suspect Alek Minassian before arresting him on April 23, 2018. Postmedia

That same poll identified 74 percent of incel members with long-lasting anxiety or emotional distress; 77 percent lacking optimism in their future, and 71.5 percent claiming to be on the autism spectrum.
A poll in 2018 discovered 67.5 percent of members had seriously contemplated committing suicide. These men are by and large steeped in a sense of failure to attract women as a result of their genetic inheritance.

On the violence-prone spectrum of the malaise a Toronto resident by the name of Alek Minassian proclaimed that his deliberate ramming of a rental van into pedestrians leisurely walking along Yonge Street on a beautiful spring day, killing ten people and injuring sixteen wee simply casualties of "an uprising, a beta uprising, if you will, against the Chads and the Stacys." The subculture of resentment against dating and sexually active men and women gave this man the impetus to violent misogyny and murder.

Canada now regards incel violence as an act of terrorism. A teenaged man was charged for the first time in an act of terrorism when he used a machete to kill a female Toronto erotic massage parlour worker. The charge levied against him for that act of murder was: "murder -- terrorist activity". The incels, as an ideological group are viewed by mental  health professionals, social workers and anti-extremist activists as lonely men, some of whom can spiral from loneliness to self-loathing to violence.

Alek Minassian, charged with murdering 10 people in the April 2018 van attack in Toronto, is questioned by police detective Rob Thomas after the attack. Ontario Superior Court

The counter-violent extremism associated generally with Islamic jihadists and white supremacists now include incels. Recently, Public Safety Canada, a federal body, funded the British deradicalization company Moonshot CVE to produce a detailed incel study. The report that was released is designed to inform and assist frontline practitioners and social services in their bid to interrupt incel mobilization to violence.

One thing the report revealed of importance is the obstacle in reaching through to incels since, irrespective of their self-declared emotional needs, they have a tendency to refuse any measure of assistance. They tend to evince hostile rejections from any they identify as "normies". To accept therapeutic aid and psychological intervention equates with rejecting the incel dogma under which physical appearance alone is what women care about, rendering pro-social intervention useless.

"They're the ones who adopted the concept of incel, they've taken that on as their own identity, rather than being called something by other people."
"It is a community that has a lot of mental health and social health needs -- a lot of these folks are at a very high risk of harming themselves and no one else."
"It's a trickier movement to work with. It's trickier to understand. They are much more self-aware around who they are and much more self-aware of the fact they are being observed."
"They are quite fascinated with themselves. While most incels really have a lot of disdain for themselves and a lot of self-hatred, they are also really into themselves."
"And incels weird them [hardened, tough-nosed counter-terrorist types and former extremists] out to a degree and in a way that no other movement does. Part of what's so disturbing is it's so relatable -- loneliness and sadness and lack of connection. It's a human experience a lot of us feel and they have felt it in a way that is so far beyond what a lot of us have."
"You can recognize that empathy without having to have any sympathy. You can recognize the human experience that led them to this place without having any acceptability around the misogyny and rejecting it fundamentally."
Micah Clark, Moonshot principal, Ottawa

A woman stops to pay respect at a makeshift memorial to one of the victims being remembered on April 23, 2019, ahead of a vigil held in Toronto's Mel Lastman Square, to commemorate the victims of last year's Toronto van attack by self-described incel, Alek Minassian.

Chris Young/The Canadian Press