Study finds “incel” traits are linked to paranoia and other psychopathological issues
by Eric W. Dolan January 4, 2023
The personality traits associated with “incels” are linked to several psychopathological issues, according to new research published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
An “incel” (or involuntary celibate) refers to a member of an online subculture of individuals who feel deprived of meaningful companionship and sex. Many of these individuals resent women for rejecting them romantically and sexually. Unfortunately, some individuals within this subculture have even turned to violence. Although many people are quick to condemn incels for their misogynistic views, understanding the complexities behind this growing subculture could help to prevent future harms.
“I began to study this topic together with my colleague, Professor Lilybeth Fontanesi. Our interest regarded the possible psychological explanations of extreme misogyny in the contemporary phenomenon of incel,” said study author Giacomo Ciocca, a professor of clinical psychology at Sapienza University of Rome.
The researchers used the online platform Qualtrics to survey a sample of 770 male participants. The survey included an assessment known as the “incel” trait scale. The participants were shown a list of 20 traits and asked to indicate which described them. The traits included characteristics such as excluded, scorned, unattractive, defeated, hateful, and resentful.
Ciocca and his colleagues found that those who scored higher on the “incel” trait scale tended to also score high on measures of paranoia, anxiety, and depression. In addition, the “incel” traits were associated with a fearful attachment style. In other words, those who scored higher on the scale were more likely to agree with the statement “I am comfortable without close emotional relationships. It is very important to me to feel independent and self-sufficient, and I prefer not to depend on others or have others depend on me.”
Posted a DU Meme. I pranced right over and hope that I live here forever because I love it sooooo much! Facebook? I've been there maybe five times in the last three years. I despise it.
I'm here every day for hours. I learn so much! And it keeps me from being lonely. Plus the DU Braintrust has saved my bacon during some emergencies.
If you don't see me here then something's seriously wrong. Please send out a search party!
Our collective society is under siege. If a person isn't touched by these events they are deranged and/or are manifesting antisocial personality disorder. In other words, very sick and possibly a danger to society.
How many of us here haven't started to rethink our societal interactions?
I have read at least one thread today discussing the safest times to go shopping. We consider adjusting our activities based on gun violence not just because we are fearful. We are traumatized.
Because of the frequently repeated trauma, we are unable to think critically. We're unable to conclude that it's the weapons that are the ultimate problem.
It's not the visit to the store, bar, club, synagogue, church, school, college, Post Office, restaurant ball game, party, park, street, gas station, spa, apartment, nail salon, rest stop, deli, apartment, strip club, home or in a drive by. And that's not an entirely inclusive list of actual places where these crimes occur.
We have to start thinking critically and behave differently or this will only get worse. But how much worse can it be?
I've had enough. It's time for letters, phone calls and promises to those in power who refuse to see the need for change. They need to deeply understand that they will be voted out if they refuse to listen and act accordingly.
If we can't vote them out then they need to know that we will hound them into their graves until they do something monumental to protect the people of our society.
We can refuse to live like this and we should make our refusal known and make it loud, united and crystal clear.
1) David Zucchino’s book, Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, won a Pulitzer in general nonfiction in 2021.
From Pulitzer Prize-winner David Zucchino comes a searing account of the Wilmington riot and coup of 1898, an extraordinary event unknown to most Americans
By the 1890s, Wilmington was North Carolina’s largest city and a shining example of a mixed-race community. It was a bustling port city with a burgeoning African American middle class and a Fusionist government of Republicans and Populists that included black aldermen, police officers and magistrates. There were successful black-owned businesses and an African American newspaper, The Record. But across the state—and the South—white supremacist Democrats were working to reverse the advances made by former slaves and their progeny.
In 1898, in response to a speech calling for white men to rise to the defense of Southern womanhood against the supposed threat of black predators, Alexander Manly, the outspoken young Record editor, wrote that some relationships between black men and white women were consensual. His editorial ignited outrage across the South, with calls to lynch Manly.
But North Carolina’s white supremacist Democrats had a different strategy. They were plotting to take back the state legislature in November “by the ballot or bullet or both,” and then use the Manly editorial to trigger a “race riot” to overthrow Wilmington’s multi-racial government. Led by prominent citizens including Josephus Daniels, publisher of the state’s largest newspaper, and former Confederate Colonel Alfred Moore Waddell, white supremacists rolled out a carefully orchestrated campaign that included raucous rallies, race-baiting editorials and newspaper cartoons, and sensational, fabricated news stories.
With intimidation and violence, the Democrats suppressed the black vote and stuffed ballot boxes (or threw them out), to win control of the state legislature on November eighth. Two days later, more than 2,000 heavily armed Red Shirts swarmed through Wilmington, torching the Record office, terrorizing women and children, and shooting at least sixty black men dead in the streets. The rioters forced city officials to resign at gunpoint and replaced them with mob leaders. Prominent blacks—and sympathetic whites—were banished. Hundreds of terrified black families took refuge in surrounding swamps and forests.
This brutal insurrection is a rare instance of a violent overthrow of an elected government in the U.S. It halted gains made by blacks and restored racism as official government policy, cementing white rule for another half century. It was not a “race riot,” as the events of November 1898 came to be known, but rather a racially motivated rebellion launched by white supremacists.
In Wilmington’s Lie, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Zucchino uses contemporary newspaper accounts, diaries, letters and official communications to create a gripping and compelling narrative that weaves together individual stories of hate and fear and brutality. This is a dramatic and definitive account of a remarkable but forgotten chapter of American history.
(Book description from Amazon)
Author interview with the Free Library of Philadelphia
2) The short movie produced by the very far right John Locke Foundation and panned by critics for its disingenuousness and misrepresentation of the event.
The 1898 Wilmington Massacre Was Anything But A Love Story
July 27, 2022
...Snip
The Wilmington Massacre was a devastating blow to what could have truly been something special, something far more special than a fictional love story. North Carolina had a chance to be a progressive state that had elected officials that actually represented the people they were elected by, and that was stolen by violent, petulant white supremacists who were willing to murder hundreds of people to keep their power.
Reframing the massacre as a love story is not only an insult that disrespects the complex history of our state, but it’s also a blatant lie. A lie meant to trivialize and romanticize a violent piece of history and act as a soothing balm over the scorching burn that the January 6th insurrection left on our country. A lie meant to teach young children that “these things happen” and the parts of history that are hard to look at aren’t worth talking about.
Opinion writer for The Charlotte Observer Paige Masten summed it up best: “What happened in 1898 wasn’t a love story, and it’s absurd and callous to rewrite it as such. There’s nothing romantic about institutionalized racism. And most of all, we shouldn’t care about it simply because it was an “important historical event.” We should care about it because it was a violently racist insurrection that made North Carolina a white supremacist state — the remnants of which are still present today.”
Snip...more at the link...
https://ncvoices.com/2022/07/the-1898-wilmington-massacre-was-anything-but-a-love-story/
3) Stage play, What the River Knows, I am proud to say is a production of a friend of mine, Alicia Inshiradu, that opens tonight at Thalian Hall in Wilmington. The play premieres tonight at 7:30. There are additional 7:30 shows on Friday and Saturday, and a 2:00 matinee on Sunday.
THIS WEEKEND: Stage play honors lives lost in 1898 Wilmington Massacre
November 10, 2022 Matt Bennett
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — It is 1898 Commemoration week in New Hanover County, and a new stage play aims to educate Wilmington residents about what happened in their city 124 years ago.
‘What the River Knows’ is a play adapted from a short film by the same name, created by Alicia Inshiradu. That film premiered at Cucalorus Film Festival Festival to critical acclaim.
Lead actor Joseph Hill says the play follows the life of a person who owned businesses and property in 1898 before being killed in the massacre.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6428174/?ref_=ttpl_pl_tt A young child and his tenacious father struggle to survive a mounting white supremacy campaign that incites the violent 1898 Wilmington Massacre and Coup, a white insurrection that terrorized a thriving black community and became the only Coup d'état in United States history.
When I first started working as an election judge, I was astounded by how many people relied on mailers, from their churches, to vote. Naive me, mentioned it to the "boss" judge because I believed it to be illegal electioneering and technically, it is.
He looked at me like I had sprouted an extra head and nothing more was said about it. I can take a hint and I wanted to continue to do my job. I would have to play by the unofficial rules and look the other way. As an INFJ it's a hard thing for me to do, but I did it anyway. My desire to volunteer was very strong.
That same piece of paper, actually a cardstock mailer, was passed around from voter to voter to voter until I lost count of how many people used it as a reference for casting their votes. The whole experience left me heartsick but I didn't quit because that's how we fail.
I know this is the Religion Group and technically this post is about politics but General Discussion rules forbid posting topics related to Religion. I didn't know where else to post it. Maybe that's a problem we have that needs to be reconciled if we're going to win the battle against having religion commingled with our politics. Especially since what we're talking about is distinctly Christian Nationalism.
It's bad enough now. It could get worse and I'm afraid it will. I think we need a plan to correct the trajectory. It's past time to be able to nip it in the bud. That ship sailed long ago. Any ideas?