Why incels take the “Blackpill”—and why we should care (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 months ago by nulluser@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] atro_city@fedia.io 2 points 2 months ago

"De-radicalization is a noble, worthy line of research," she said. "But the existing evidence from that field of study suggests that prevention is easier and more effective than trying to pull these people out once they're already in." Potential strategies might include fostering better digital and media literacy, i.e., teaching kids to be cognizant of the content they're consuming online. Exposure time is another key issue.

The education system world-wide is quite bad. Yes, it's better than nothing, but still, its not good. Media and online literacy are part of the smallest subset of curriculums. As a whole, the education system fails at preparing most people for life. It's even bad at preparing people for a vocation, its seemingly intended goal.

With better education, traditional mindsets would be much less common. I mention this because in my opinion the major cause of being an involuntary celibate and considering that status a problem, is traditionalism. That attaches self-worth to achievements in life and tightly couples success with partnership and parenthood.

Better education creates more free thinkers and independent individuals who are not easily controlled or swayed by popular narrative. They are not immune to it, nobody is, but giving humans a toolset for critical reasoning can go a long way.

[-] blarghly@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

That attaches self-worth to achievements in life and tightly couples success with partnership and parenthood.

I am highly skeptical of a viable alternative here. Self worth is strongly tied to the quality of our social relationships. Our social relationships depend significantly on our achievements. People want to be around other people who are succeeding, because they know that successful people can help them also be successful. Sure, your mom will always love you, hopefully... But who else?

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[-] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago

Incel is just a pejorative that makes them get even more blackpilled. Use "emotionally unstable" or even "constitutionally weak", because if they knew the real issue, they'd be more predisposed to actually fixing themselves so that they can also get laid.

Also, legalize sex work. Just get them laid. Watch the alt right and fascism crash harder than a drunk driver speeding at night.

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[-] SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Seems like a huge part of the problem is equating "self-worth" to "getting laid".

Putting your dick in a woman doesn't make you any more of a man / successful / worth more than anyone else.

Societal expectations need to be rejected. Oh, success is measured by your ability to get married, have a house, and raise your 2.5 children? For a vast majority, NONE OF THAT IS CURRENTLY SUSTAINABLE AND/OR OBTAINABLE. So why bother? Right?

I get it. It ain't right, but I get it.

[-] Azzu@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

It's literally the most natural thing in the world to equate reproductive effectiveness to worth. All life is "worth" their reproductive effectiveness. So not having sex is very relevant to our entire existence as a species.

As such, our mental faculties put a heavy punishment in the form of mental pain, i.e. "self-worth attached to getting laid", on this whole thing.

This has very little to do with societal expectations. It's simple biology. Not getting laid is supposed to be one of the worst things for an organism.

You're rationally right with what you say, but it's simply not very relevant. Rationality does not help with our most deeply rooted biological desires. The only thing that helps is getting them fulfilled, i.e. having sex.