Incel killers

In the courses that I teach, population growth comes into discussions either directly or indirectly.  In the straightforward discussions on demographics, I often note in passing that we need to watch out for one age segment in the sudden population growth in societies: Males between 15 and 25 years of age. 

I tell them that the biology of being males means that during that age there is one heck of a lot of testosterone rushing around in them and that if there aren't safe outlets for the resulting behavior, well, these young men can be destructive.  In the old days, people got married when they were young, and marriage and sex effectively tackled the testosterone.  And then there were wars to which young men were sent to fight--another outlet for testosterone.

Now, countries rarely wage wars.  We have become a lot more peaceful than ever before.  So, one outlet for testosterone has been preempted.

In most countries around the world where sex outside of marriage is frowned upon, males are marrying much later in life.  And meanwhile, sex is all around--like how a flick of the finger brings up more porn that one can watch in a life time.

And, now, we have a word for them: Incels.

In popular usage, the term primarily refers to the online communities of people who self-identify as involuntarily celibate. These communities are characterized by misogyny, the glorification of violence, and racism

The involuntarily celibates are not merely online though.  "Basically, incels cannot get laid and they violently loathe anyone who can."  And more than a few of them are not mild-mannered people.  I have always worried about the destructive power of the sexually frustrated young men. 

The destructive incels are not that different from other violent actors whose ideology is different from his own, yet whose actions are similar

It is not difficult to spot parallels with the world of jihadism, where women and sex are similarly fixated on to an extraordinary degree.

Quick, think of the photos of terrorists across the world.  How many images of women flashed in your mind?  How many middle-aged men?  You see what I mean?

Like incels, jihadists similarly crave sex, but the circumstances surrounding its consummation are closely regulated by their religious norms, which prohibit sex outside of marriage and same-sex couplings. Among jihadists, even masturbation is frowned upon, although Osama bin Laden famously issued a masturbation fatwa, permitting it in times of urgent need.

There is more than mere correlation in all these.

According to Professor Juergensmeyer, “Nothing is more intimate than sexuality, and no greater humiliation can be experienced than failure over what one perceives to be one’s sexual role.” Furthermore, he argues, such failures “can lead to public violence,” which is performed to cancel out feelings of shame and reassert the claim to manhood.

What to about this?  Definitely not what Ross Douthat writes about!