The press is awash with speculation about the motives of mass shooters in the wake of the recent massacres in public spaces by lone gunmen over the weekend. I believe many people are missing a relevant point when discussing what happened in El Paso and Dayton, the latter of which is my home, and why some people become mass shooters. I live approximately 3 miles from the Oregon district of downtown Dayton, the location of Connor Betts’ insane shooting rampage.

Much speculation still surrounds his motivations, but some facts have already surfaced, such as the fact that he was a registered Democrat, had a political love affair of sorts with Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Satan, and thought antifa was the best thing to happen to America since General George S. Patton (killing Nazis, dontcha’ know). Based on his own statements, he had a desire to see socialism win the day in the U.S.

But who was Connor Betts?

Information not found on social media is still slow in coming, but it is now known that he was a young man who kept things such as kill-lists and rape-lists, going as far back as his junior year of high school, and former associates have said he would sometimes comment about having a desire to shoot up a bar or other crowded venue. He was suspended from high school at least once for writing out a list of the names of girls he’d like to sexually assault. By most accounts, he was generally seen as very socially maladjusted.

This is what's worth looking at. What produces such reckless hatred for women at such a young age, that eventually becomes another national tragedy? I believe this question can be answered in part by examining the rise of the INCEL.

For the uninitiated, INCEL is a contraction, meaning ‘Involuntary Celibate.’ This is a polite way of saying that someone, through lack of social skills, financial status, or physical attributes, couldn’t get a date at a cathouse. INCELs are a real thing, folks. They have very populous message boards in their own little corner of the dark web, as well as on the mainstream Internet (these apparently began as support groups, but have since morphed into the cancer they currently are). They talk to each other, egg each other on and encourage each other.

And they support one another in their pathologies. Based on what's seen on these sites now, they don't tell each other to stand up straight, comb their hair, or put on clean underwear in order to win the heart of the girl. They instead just affirm each other in their resentments, intensifying them.

INCELs have a severe resentment and dislike of women (collectively called ‘Stacies’) growing out of years of rejection, equally deeply held resentment towards the alpha males they apparently cannot emulate (they refer to alphas as ‘Chads’), and a now-militant outlook. In a nutshell, based on what's become of these sites, they believe that all the women of the world are gold diggers who chase that ‘alpha’ upper class male for their money, social ability, or physiques, and none give the remainder (them) so much as a smile or conversation. It infuriates them. They perceive that they are being judged solely on the basis of these three criteria, with heavy emphasis on ‘genetic shortcomings’ which is something they can do nothing about, stoking their fury. And steeped in this kind of wounded self-pity and resentment, they can only conclude that these ‘Stacies’ and ‘Chads’ must therefore be punished for their ostracization of themselves.

Why do they feel this way? One could argue that maybe mass glamour advertising, T.V. stereotypes, or the Internet now serve a replacement for normal social activity. Perhaps in addition, public education, and the general de-masculinizing of men in this country could also be contributing causes to this belief. However, that’s a deeper and different conversation, probably best left to the shrinks.

I don’t normally read sites such as Vox, but Zack Beauchamp penned an excellent article about this online community in April, and while it's a lengthy read, it is well worth the reader’s time. One can also simply visit a site such as incel.co (I’d regard this site as NSFW). Ten minutes there is sure to enlighten even the most casual reader about this self-reinforcing subculture.

As a civilization, we have always had those men (and women) who harbored resentment towards someone they desired who wouldn’t give them the time of day. What we have here, however, is an entire community of self-defined Quasimodos, who not only blame the entire outside world for their lonely, unromantic, sexually unfulfilled lives, but who also expend a great deal of energy reinforcing that resentment in other members (along with all the other usual anti-Semitic and racial hatreds, i.e., Asian women are sometimes referred to as ‘noodlewhores’). They even promote violence as an acceptable response to their frustrations, though they aren't overt about it. A little reading, though, pretty well allows one to spot the clever metaphors.

Here’s an excerpt of one 25 year-old poster’s musings about the fairer sex (thread here). Decorum prevents me from citing the author’s avatar name, but the person joined the site in August 2018 and has stacked up 5400 posts to date (which is a story in itself):

It’s impossible to be lonely if you have eggs. Someone with eggs is automatically a member of the most valueable[sic] group in the world in possession of the most valuable resources: eggs. Everything in a foids [Author’s note: ‘foids’ = ‘femoids’, a derogatory for female] life is a manifestation/representation of her value to her species. It’s just not possible to lose at life in any meaningful way if you’re female.

I f***ing hate foids. Ive been lonely for 25 out of 25 years because foids are not forgiving of my genetic shortcomings.. things that would be considered trivial if I were female, are social and sexual death sentences because I’m male.. We live in 2 different dimensions and they conflate their meme[sic] first world problems with the soul crushing problems we have that make us suicidal. Women are incapable of conceiving of a version of life that isn’t inherently better than death. It doesn’t compute for them .. they only know life as this magical beautiful thing full of happiness and can’t fathom anything less than that... If any girl woke up one day as an average male, shed[sic] IMMEDIATELY rope. The dichotomy between experiences of the human condition is comical.

Setting aside the obvious self-loathing to be found there, when reading a post such as this, one quickly realizes that some of these people have above-average intelligence. Stupid people doing stupid things are still stupid when what they’re doing is done. Intelligent people who harbor deep, abiding hatreds can well be much more dangerous and formidable creatures. They can think and plan far more effectively and selectively. Was Connor Betts one of these people? It's not known at this point, but I have a feeling he could have been. The group, remember, is negative, self-reinforcing, and apparently violent.

While Connor Betts may be written off as a copycat mass shooter, it’s possible that members of sites such as these give a person such as him the additional incentive and encouragement to go out and act upon their pent-up urges. Might this also explain Betts shooting his own sister? (For the sake of accuracy, it is not yet established that Megan Betts was an intentional target)

Connor Betts’s story will quickly disappear from the MSM, because, except for being white, he checks none of the boxes that would make him useful to the leftist agenda. When reading up on the INCEL community, however, one quickly realizes that he would fit right into such a group, scarcely raising an eyebrow in the process. To the best of my knowledge, there is no direct evidence linking Betts to one of these groups, but when it comes to checking boxes, he scores almost perfectly, as do many of the other recent mass shooters. The 2014 Isla Vista mass shooter, which took place near Santa Barbara, fit this profile to a tee, as did that of a Toronto car attacker in 2018. 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta, who's been identified by experts as having a common profile with INCELs was the same way. Millennial, socially maladjusted, angry, resentful, romantically and sexually frustrated people, held together by a very large community of like-minded peers possibly cheering them on to potentially violent and fatal action seems to be an important emerging picture. At a minimum, the toxic nature of the content found on such sites only serves to reinforce the feelings of resentment and self-loathing, two things known to help propel people such as Betts into a rage and his victims to a tragic destiny. This in no way absolves or forgives Betts, we are all ultimately responsible for our actions. But perhaps by spreading the word about the destructive nature of communities such as this, we can become better at spotting their members before we become casualties.

Gabe Williams is an avid reader of AT, and occasionally posts comments under the name Magishan.

Image credit: Randy Scribner, Jr., via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0