The Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $250,000 grant to Georgia State University for a study into the ‘male supremacist’ terror threat posed by the incel movement.
Incels are members of an Internet subculture based on “involuntary celibacy,” which is borne out of their failure to attract women and subsequent hatred of women.
Some adherents have turned to violence in recent years, including 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, who shot and killed six women in Isla Vista in May 2014 in “retribution” for being rejected by females.
25-year-old Alek Minassian also used a van to run over and kill 10 people during an April 2018 attack in Toronto which he intended to speak an “incel rebellion.”
“The Incel community is one of the purest hotbeds of Internet radicalization I’ve ever seen, and it’s a community that is growing in size and confidence,” said Dr. John Horgan, who will lead the study.
The study will examine what role the Internet plays in radicalizing incels and producing a “toxic and rage-fueled community” that foments violence.
“Though Incels have been around for several years, the research community has only recently begun to sit up and take notice. I see Incel violence against women as nothing less than a new form of terrorism,” Horgan said.
Some wonder whether treating frustrated young men as would-be terrorists is the right method to adopt instead of a more empathetic model that seeks to understand exactly why they feel so atomized and alienated by modern society.
“Rather than ask why there has been a rise in sexlessness over the past decade and try to address that issue, our government is going to label sexless men “male supremacists” and treat them as a domestic terror threat,” remarks Chris Menahan.
As we previously highlighted, personnel at a U.S. Air Force base in in Maryland were also briefed on the nationwide threat posed by the incel movement.