Whenever people are like oh we need to empathize w/ incels, care about their feelings blah blah, I just think about what Lundy Bancroft said about abusers.

They need to learn empathy, and this excessive focus on their feelings is a barrier to them learning empathy.

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/iHateCogsci/status/1610409758120361984

https://sb-ex6e14yir4.b-cdn.net/media_attachments/files/109/628/430/505/308/353/original/db370a81de5f1eee.png

But this is step 1 of "offering an alternative": recognizing that it takes different skillsets/social conditions to get them well-adjusted, because for whatever reason they're starting from a different psychological basis.

I agree that to some extent the whole idea of focusing on these guys is counterproductive. But focusing on them is not the same as making sure that our movement is equipped to deal with them effectively, without having to relive this generational moment over and over again.

They feel alienated from society because it feels unlivably complex, and they happen to fit enough heuristics of the power group that they feel entitled to deal with that complexity by violently maximizing their adherence to power.

The right takes advantage of this by a) being in power already, b) being the same kind of people, and c) happy to use these guys to further their own interests. So they offer the easy, accessible, lowest-common-denominator solution of just catering to that entitlement.

Of course "Be a good person" doesn't effectively compete. But that doesn't have to be the only narrative the left offers. We need the next step, a narrative that starts with "Be a good person" and builds it into a competitively epic cognitive reward mechanism.

  • THC
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    1 year ago

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    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
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      2 years ago

      It's a survey, so I guess they mean more liberal or socially progressive than left wing. It's still revealing that your average incel isn't some stereotypical chud.

      • THC
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        1 year ago

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        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
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          2 years ago

          I would too, but many on the left don't believe or practice that, even if they say it.

          Look at how Marx and Einstein treated their wives, look at all the leftists in the past that were massive "womanizers", hell even today there are lots of "left wing" men that engage in poor behaviour towards women, it's an ongoing issue and to say "well those aren't real leftists, because obviously if you're left wing you would consider women your equal", avoids addressing the issue.