I've heard the word incel used all over but didn't know where it came from. I did have some idea of what it meant ofcourse.
People are so divided into these echo chambers they make up their own languages. Soon the different groups won't even be able to communicate with each other.
Because they are not trying. I suppose they are expecting women to be falling all over them.
Somewhat off-topic I suppose, I'm English man, but I went to university in Scotland (Edinburgh). I found it really easy to get into friendships with Scottish girls, just by virtue of not being a Scottish man, almost all of whom back then (erly 1970s) were incel prototypes, who couldn't work out why they weren't getting anywhere with the female population. Guys, it only takes a little effort - but I think things have improved
This is the usual slur, to wrap up all men who fail at the mating game in some group, just because they can't get laid, and declaring them evil because of the violence of a few. It's a lot like the same being done on the right to transwomen due to violence by a few.
Incel doesn't usually pertain to every virgin male out there. It's typically with a connotation for a certain type of male. Usually the more narcissistic sort that blame their own failings on women and take it out misogynistically.
It's annoying that they class themselves as "Involuntary" Celibates, because as far as I can tell the "in" part of "Involuntary" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
I believe incels and looksmaxxing are different with some overlap so I don't know why guardian is conflating the two of them.
But I think there's a lot of truth in what these two communities say. The reason their slang catches on is because they attach to words what people subconsciously believe anyway.
obviously, in isolation, there is nothing hateful about wanting to improve your appearance. but if you spend any time at all on these forums in which "looksmaxxing" discussions tend to occur, the hatred towards women (and other groups) is profuse and apparent.
There is a lot of physiognomy/phrenology nonsense loaded into these beliefs, which ties back to other (loaded/potentially hate-linked) pseudoscience like eugenics
"It's about bad genetics... That's why people in Indian aren't considered the best aesthetically.. These arranged marriages aren't allowing the best genes to prevail" - clavicular[1]
I'm not sure why you'd go out on a limb to defend the guy singing songs glorifying hitler. But you do you
Why would a forum whose main purpose is self improvement and “max” ones looks, say that things come down to genes? If it were about genes, why wouldn’t they just accept it and crib about it instead of trying to get better at it?
You have absolutely no idea what this movement is about.
The alt-right is obsessed with form over function combined with a grossly outdated view of masculinity circa the 1940s. Alt-right media focuses on disenfranchising younger men by convincing them vanity, narcissism, and by proximity, racism and sexism, is desirable. They are also into outdated, inherently Nazi, concepts like phrenology and physiognomy, and sometimes just openly discuss eugenics and participate in it (see Elon Musk, et al).
Looksmaxxing is, essentially, about becoming a shitty person. You work on yourself, become better looking, but find that even less people want you around because of how you decided to curate your life and your personality... and instead of leaving this cult, they blame everyone else and become weaponized incels, who commit acts of violence to get even with the society that rejected them.
The guy who shot Charlie Kirk was deep into this cult, for example; he followed prominent hatemongers and alt-right influencers, attempted to participate in looksmaxxing, and also posted racist and sexist things, parroting the things he heard from the influencers.
FT: [Workers are 'friction-maxxing' to resist AI](https://www.ft.com/content/fd5e65df-83c7-42f3-9658-377c99df4...)
Economist: [Should You Be Fibremaxxing?](https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/02/20/...)
Bloomberg: [Fibermaxxing Is a Diet Trend Even Nutritionists Can Love](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-11/high-fibe...)
The Incels have took over all media last month!
They are using this style of speech, because it serves their aims of recruiting young people to go fight and die in stupid conflicts like this
TIL: “involuntarily celibate”
I've heard the word incel used all over but didn't know where it came from. I did have some idea of what it meant ofcourse.
People are so divided into these echo chambers they make up their own languages. Soon the different groups won't even be able to communicate with each other.
> involuntarily celibate
Because they are not trying. I suppose they are expecting women to be falling all over them.
Somewhat off-topic I suppose, I'm English man, but I went to university in Scotland (Edinburgh). I found it really easy to get into friendships with Scottish girls, just by virtue of not being a Scottish man, almost all of whom back then (erly 1970s) were incel prototypes, who couldn't work out why they weren't getting anywhere with the female population. Guys, it only takes a little effort - but I think things have improved
This is the usual slur, to wrap up all men who fail at the mating game in some group, just because they can't get laid, and declaring them evil because of the violence of a few. It's a lot like the same being done on the right to transwomen due to violence by a few.
Empathy is inherently tribal.
I didn't mention "evil" or violence.
> Empathy is inherently tribal.
I have no idea what that means, and I suspect neither do you.
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Incel doesn't usually pertain to every virgin male out there. It's typically with a connotation for a certain type of male. Usually the more narcissistic sort that blame their own failings on women and take it out misogynistically.
The word incel smears all involuntary celibates, not just the whiney over entitled types. The bigotry is in that conflation.
Self-sorting into echo chambers has definitely already happened and discourse is definitely already hampered by lack of consensus on what words mean.
I think that's the case already. Did you know Trump is the imperfect vessel of God?
That means everything, no matter what happens, is fine. Because if Trump is found to be ever-more imperfect, it's OK. Because vessel of God part.
> “You’re hitting yourself in the face with a hammer. That feels very manly. It’s very strong,” Walker says.
Is this an actual thing that kids do or just a moral panic because some loon did it once for clicks?
It's annoying that they class themselves as "Involuntary" Celibates, because as far as I can tell the "in" part of "Involuntary" is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Volcels is way more accurate.
The incels have grown up and now work at the Pentagon
They've become old enough to work at the Pentagon. Grown up they have not.
and in ICE
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I believe incels and looksmaxxing are different with some overlap so I don't know why guardian is conflating the two of them.
But I think there's a lot of truth in what these two communities say. The reason their slang catches on is because they attach to words what people subconsciously believe anyway.
"what people subconciously believe" != "lot of truth"
the State should not be boosting the rhetoric of what mostly amounts to a bunch of hateful losers blaming their problems on women.
whats hateful about looksmaxxing?
is this bad-faith naivete ?
obviously, in isolation, there is nothing hateful about wanting to improve your appearance. but if you spend any time at all on these forums in which "looksmaxxing" discussions tend to occur, the hatred towards women (and other groups) is profuse and apparent.
can you share some sources?
no. I'm not going to boost links to the incel pipeline. it's already easy enough to access.
you have again conflated incels vs looksmaxxing which means you are not seeing it the correct way
The culture surrounding it is all very cynical about women. It's also dripping with self hatred.
sure but i don't think its so bad that the government should refuse to use their slang.
they also promote agency and self improvement as a community.
There is a lot of physiognomy/phrenology nonsense loaded into these beliefs, which ties back to other (loaded/potentially hate-linked) pseudoscience like eugenics
its literally the opposite of eugenics because looksmaxxing is about self improvment and agency. eugenics is about genetics.
"It's about bad genetics... That's why people in Indian aren't considered the best aesthetically.. These arranged marriages aren't allowing the best genes to prevail" - clavicular[1]
I'm not sure why you'd go out on a limb to defend the guy singing songs glorifying hitler. But you do you
[1] https://x.com/WyronGaines/status/1995013476289245573?s=20
They talk about things being down to 'bad genes' all the time. I don't think you're discussing this in good faith you're just sealion'ing
Why would a forum whose main purpose is self improvement and “max” ones looks, say that things come down to genes? If it were about genes, why wouldn’t they just accept it and crib about it instead of trying to get better at it?
You have absolutely no idea what this movement is about.
Self-hate?
self hate is not the same as self improvement
Looksmaxxing is a known alt-right dog-whistle.
The alt-right is obsessed with form over function combined with a grossly outdated view of masculinity circa the 1940s. Alt-right media focuses on disenfranchising younger men by convincing them vanity, narcissism, and by proximity, racism and sexism, is desirable. They are also into outdated, inherently Nazi, concepts like phrenology and physiognomy, and sometimes just openly discuss eugenics and participate in it (see Elon Musk, et al).
Looksmaxxing is, essentially, about becoming a shitty person. You work on yourself, become better looking, but find that even less people want you around because of how you decided to curate your life and your personality... and instead of leaving this cult, they blame everyone else and become weaponized incels, who commit acts of violence to get even with the society that rejected them.
The guy who shot Charlie Kirk was deep into this cult, for example; he followed prominent hatemongers and alt-right influencers, attempted to participate in looksmaxxing, and also posted racist and sexist things, parroting the things he heard from the influencers.