Excellent stuff. Entering into what are supposed to be my retirement years against backdrop has me screaming “this isn’t what I signed up for.” But maybe I just didn’t read the fine print.
Spot on. As soon as you mentioned feeling displaced, I mumbled "Marx's alienation" and kept reading. Thanks for getting to the point, which is always the point, which is capitalism has to go if the species is going to survive. That's it, that's the message.
This piece in particular gives the feel of you being calm in the center of the hurricane and thus able to describe it with concern and without the need for any fury. Exemplary. Thank you.
I love all your articles and you are correct, it all matters. My ex used to call me a bleeding heart because I cared about world issues. I would rather be a bleeding heart than an incel or a right wing fool. Keep it coming. I love hearing your opinions on important matters.
For at least a century, women have been told, in advertising, that if they bought this or that product, they will become sexually irresistible. We were and are told that we must look, smell, and dress a certain way to be considered desirable. We must be married and, if married, must have children in order to be considered complete. Anyone who did not follow this path was called a freak (I speak from personal experience). Yet there don't appear to be a lot of angry women going around behaving like male 'incels' becuase they did not get what they wanted, or what they were told to want.
I'm not sure that capitalism is entirely to blame. There has been a sea change, socially.
The USA is very sick, socially. and Canada is marching in lockstep. (The term 'incel' was originally coined by a marginalized woman in an article about her 'involuntary celibacy'; a victimizer in Toronto who mowed down 20 women with a panel truck because he could not get a girlfriend claimed that he was the actual victim because he was 'an incel' and the term is now used to describe immature, violent young men.)
There is a general lack of committment, an unwillingness to accept personal responsibility for actions, and a feeling of victimhood that blames all personal problems on 'the other'. The gun worship and political extremism is linked to this because it gives weak men a feeling of power. This attitude has been increasing for at least two generations. Here is an interesting article that describes the possible causes.
Women 'who just want the same thing (the men) want' are considered threats by insecure men. It has little to do with their desire for sex. To some people sex is a way of keeping women subordinate, 'in their place'. Look at the full scale attack on women's rights, at the troglodyte 'representatives' seeking to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1919, the ones who want pregnant women to stay pregnant, to not even have access to contraception. No penalties for men who got them that way.
I recommend Laura Bates’ book Men Who Hate Women to understand how incel
Culture and its brand of misogyny are not niche at all. Within these allied internet movements including Men Going Their own Way and Pick Up Artists, are lots of overlaps and lots of incubation of ideas that are white supremacist, anti-Semitic, islamophobic, anti-tax, homophobic, transphobic etc. In other words these disaffected communities of men are spaces where white supremacist and fascist - as well as pre-modern thinking is being actively incubated. These are spaces where men are advocating that women deserve abuse and men are entitled to rape them. And we’re in real trouble because when a young man starts to research how to make himself more attractive to girls, a natural insecure question, he’s at risk of going down their indoctrination rabbit hole - esp if his early efforts are unsuccessful.
A friend of mine is a teacher (UK) who says in recent years teen boys have been defending Andrew Tate and arguing that ‘tax is theft.’
Yes, it is Divide and Rule. What happens to a society where so many of its men have been brainwashed into ultra-patriarchal, entitled and misogynistic thinking? It’s a fascist time bomb waiting to go off.
Modern capitalism values depend on idealizing 'capital growth', and then only 'more capital growth'. That's about it. The idea that say a community has value is not a socially reinforced idea. Therefore people do not look at their own communities as having any social value.
No lies detected. Capitalism, run by the current human form, is just as crap as any other system. However, I will admit i maintain I don't think there's a better base system to keep billions of people who have absolutely no sense of social/cultural responsibility and keep having kids at alarming rates, worsening overpopulation. WIth a population of 1/2 or 1/3 what we have now on Earth, you can create more balanced economic/environmental systems that prevent this sort of rot that we have now in capitalism. But the problem is, humanity wants to endlessly grow it's numbers and consume. It's really a chicken/egg issue as to which is driving which, probably a bit of both. Everything you say is correct in this piece. I'm just not sure with our endless narcissistic need to produce more than 2 kids each, if any other system can maintain us any better as we slog towards ruin on multiple fronts.
This is one of the best, fairest takes on incels I've ever read - the analogy of pyramid scheme is so apt and heartbreakingly clear.
Yes, it all matters, it's all linked and selective vision won't get us to a better place.
I so appreciate how you consistently mix ferocious insight with broad empathy - that is a heck of a tightrope but it feels like the right spot for us all to start.
Excellent stuff. Entering into what are supposed to be my retirement years against backdrop has me screaming “this isn’t what I signed up for.” But maybe I just didn’t read the fine print.
Spot on. As soon as you mentioned feeling displaced, I mumbled "Marx's alienation" and kept reading. Thanks for getting to the point, which is always the point, which is capitalism has to go if the species is going to survive. That's it, that's the message.
Ms. Wildfire:
I like your writing.
This piece in particular gives the feel of you being calm in the center of the hurricane and thus able to describe it with concern and without the need for any fury. Exemplary. Thank you.
I love all your articles and you are correct, it all matters. My ex used to call me a bleeding heart because I cared about world issues. I would rather be a bleeding heart than an incel or a right wing fool. Keep it coming. I love hearing your opinions on important matters.
For at least a century, women have been told, in advertising, that if they bought this or that product, they will become sexually irresistible. We were and are told that we must look, smell, and dress a certain way to be considered desirable. We must be married and, if married, must have children in order to be considered complete. Anyone who did not follow this path was called a freak (I speak from personal experience). Yet there don't appear to be a lot of angry women going around behaving like male 'incels' becuase they did not get what they wanted, or what they were told to want.
I'm not sure that capitalism is entirely to blame. There has been a sea change, socially.
The USA is very sick, socially. and Canada is marching in lockstep. (The term 'incel' was originally coined by a marginalized woman in an article about her 'involuntary celibacy'; a victimizer in Toronto who mowed down 20 women with a panel truck because he could not get a girlfriend claimed that he was the actual victim because he was 'an incel' and the term is now used to describe immature, violent young men.)
There is a general lack of committment, an unwillingness to accept personal responsibility for actions, and a feeling of victimhood that blames all personal problems on 'the other'. The gun worship and political extremism is linked to this because it gives weak men a feeling of power. This attitude has been increasing for at least two generations. Here is an interesting article that describes the possible causes.
https://exploringyourmind.com/the-infantilization-of-society/
Women 'who just want the same thing (the men) want' are considered threats by insecure men. It has little to do with their desire for sex. To some people sex is a way of keeping women subordinate, 'in their place'. Look at the full scale attack on women's rights, at the troglodyte 'representatives' seeking to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1919, the ones who want pregnant women to stay pregnant, to not even have access to contraception. No penalties for men who got them that way.
I recommend Laura Bates’ book Men Who Hate Women to understand how incel
Culture and its brand of misogyny are not niche at all. Within these allied internet movements including Men Going Their own Way and Pick Up Artists, are lots of overlaps and lots of incubation of ideas that are white supremacist, anti-Semitic, islamophobic, anti-tax, homophobic, transphobic etc. In other words these disaffected communities of men are spaces where white supremacist and fascist - as well as pre-modern thinking is being actively incubated. These are spaces where men are advocating that women deserve abuse and men are entitled to rape them. And we’re in real trouble because when a young man starts to research how to make himself more attractive to girls, a natural insecure question, he’s at risk of going down their indoctrination rabbit hole - esp if his early efforts are unsuccessful.
A friend of mine is a teacher (UK) who says in recent years teen boys have been defending Andrew Tate and arguing that ‘tax is theft.’
Yes, it is Divide and Rule. What happens to a society where so many of its men have been brainwashed into ultra-patriarchal, entitled and misogynistic thinking? It’s a fascist time bomb waiting to go off.
"Wanting is not the same as having," Spock. "Amok Time."
Another scorching piece.
Thank you.
Thanks for helping me think about topics in fresh ways. Appreciate your articles.
Modern capitalism values depend on idealizing 'capital growth', and then only 'more capital growth'. That's about it. The idea that say a community has value is not a socially reinforced idea. Therefore people do not look at their own communities as having any social value.
This is one of your most insightful articles to date. Thank you!
This article is an excellent analysis of the world we find ourselves in now. Thanks for articulating the problem so explicitly.
No lies detected. Capitalism, run by the current human form, is just as crap as any other system. However, I will admit i maintain I don't think there's a better base system to keep billions of people who have absolutely no sense of social/cultural responsibility and keep having kids at alarming rates, worsening overpopulation. WIth a population of 1/2 or 1/3 what we have now on Earth, you can create more balanced economic/environmental systems that prevent this sort of rot that we have now in capitalism. But the problem is, humanity wants to endlessly grow it's numbers and consume. It's really a chicken/egg issue as to which is driving which, probably a bit of both. Everything you say is correct in this piece. I'm just not sure with our endless narcissistic need to produce more than 2 kids each, if any other system can maintain us any better as we slog towards ruin on multiple fronts.
I recently talked to an economist about how to save the Amazon rain forest. And he said, "a tree is a tree is a tree".
The lack of most people’s ability to galaxy brain when it comes to all this stuff is stunning on a near daily basis.
I always love how you connect the dots, thanks Jess. 🙌
This is one of the best, fairest takes on incels I've ever read - the analogy of pyramid scheme is so apt and heartbreakingly clear.
Yes, it all matters, it's all linked and selective vision won't get us to a better place.
I so appreciate how you consistently mix ferocious insight with broad empathy - that is a heck of a tightrope but it feels like the right spot for us all to start.