On Social Media's Fringes, Growing Extremism Targets Women
What is happening at the Federal level, with cyberbully Trump in charge---gives them a license to follow his bad example.
On Social Media’s Fringes, Growing Extremism Targets Women
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/world/americas/incels-toronto-attack.html?action=click&module=editorContent&pgtype=Article®ion=CompanionColumn&contentCollection=Trending
May 9, 2018
The recent mass killing in Toronto by a man who once called for an “Incel Rebellion” has drawn attention to an online community of men who lament being “involuntarily celibate” and dream of a social order granting them access to the women of their choice.
The group may seem like a bizarre but tiny fringe, its views the expression of long-held resentments among a handful of lonely men. And it is.
But incels are the latest manifestation of a much larger movement hidden just beneath the surface of polite society across the West. They are just one part of a set of ideologies, now growing in size and influence, that speak to broader resentments among men in Western societies, experts say.
Two of modern society’s most disruptive forces — anger among many men over social changes they see as a threat, and the rise of social media upending how ideas spread and communities form — are colliding. The result is that movements like the incels are becoming at once more accessible and more extreme.
Although attacks like the one in Toronto that killed 10 people are rare, the hate being spread online is leading increasingly to threats and calls for violence. More often than not, the threats target women.
Though they still enjoy preferential status in virtually every realm, from the boardroom to the courthouse, social forces like the Me Too movement are challenging that status. To some, any steps toward equality, however modest, feel like a threat.
“There’s just this sense that ‘we used to be in charge, and now we’re not the only ones in charge, so we’ve been attacked,’” said Lilliana Mason, a University of Maryland social scientist who studies group identity and politics.
“If you have a sense that you’re owed, that your deserved status is being threatened, then you start to fight for it,” Ms. Mason said.
Often that takes the form of lashing out at members of whatever social group dared to challenge the established hierarchy.
“You’d think that young men would be treated nicely by society because we are the builders and protectors of civilization,” wrote a user named connorWM1996 on r/MGTOW, a Reddit message board for men trying to escape what they see as oppression by female-dominated society. “But no of course not. We are treated like idiots who aren’t good for anything.”....................
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‘Aggrieved Entitlement’
For white men across the Western world, special rights and privileges once came as a birthright. Even those who lacked wealth or power were assured a status above women and minorities.