iblameautistickids
I identify as a Chad
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Origins of the “Incel” Concept (1990s–2000s)
The term incel (involuntary celibate) originally emerged in the late 1990s as a gender-neutral support concept, not a misogynist one. In 1997 a Canadian student named “Alana” created Involuntary Celibacy Project for lonely people of any gender to share experiencesen.wikipedia.org. In the 2000s specialized forums appeared – for example, love-shy.com (founded 2003) for socially shy people seeking partnersen.wikipedia.org. These sites tended to have mostly male users and gradually overlapped with other online subcultures (like 4chan)en.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org. Over time, a distinct subculture of frustrated young men developed. By the 2010s subreddits like r/ForeverAlone (33,000+ members) and the Love‑shy forum had active communities of self-described “incels”theguardian.com.
Pick-Up Artists and the Early Manosphere (2000s–2014)
In parallel, the pick‑up artist (PUA) community was rising. Pick‑up artists offered seduction advice (famous from Neil Strauss’s The Game). Some men who felt “swindled” by PUAs formed a counter‑forum called PUAHate (Pick-Up Artist hate) in 2009link.springer.com. PUAHate was “founded to satirize and discredit pick-up artists”theguardian.com but quickly became an angry gathering place for frustrated men. Over time PUAHate’s rhetoric merged with the nascent “red pill” worldview: its users asserted that women’s romantic choices are governed by immutable factors (looks, wealth, “hypergamy”), and many blamed feminism and “the system” for men’s romantic failureslink.springer.comtheguardian.com. A Guardian reporter later noted that PUAHate was “one of the few truly ‘Red Pill’ communities” onlinetheguardian.com.
In this period, the red pill/blue pill metaphor from The Matrix (1999) was embraced by men’s rights and PUA circles. In the film, taking the red pill means learning an unpleasant truth, while the blue pill means remaining in blissful ignorancebritannica.com. Online, “redpilling” came to mean adopting an anti-feminist, anti-establishment view of gender relationsbritannica.com, whereas a “blue-pilled” person was one still trusting mainstream narrativesbritannica.comadl.org. (Later still, the white pill emerged as a slang term for optimistic belief or confidence in one’s causeadl.org.)
Early Incel Forums and the Birth of Blackpill (2009–2014)
By 2009–2011 several new forums explicitly for incels sprang up. PUAHate members increasingly dropped PUA jargon and coined terms like “alpha/beta” and “Chads/Stacys” to describe dating hierarchies. In 2011 a commenter named Paragon on the Men’s Rights blog Omega Virgin Revolt first used the term black pill to describe a mindset of defeatismadl.org. The black‑pill ideology holds that the social and sexual “game” is hopelessly rigged by genetics and looks; no amount of effort can change an incel’s statusadl.orgen.wikipedia.org. As Britannica notes, to be “blackpilled” is to accept “the futility of fighting against a feminist system”britannica.com. In other words, black‑pilled incels believe their situation is permanent and inescapableadl.org. (By contrast, “red‑pilled” incels might still believe they can escape inceldom through self‑improvementadl.org.)
The murder of Elliot Rodger in 2014 was a turning point. Rodger – who had participated on PUAHate – posted in his manifesto that he found a “forum full of men who are starved of sex, just like me,” and that it confirmed “theories I had about how wicked and degenerate women really are”theguardian.com. His rampage, fueled by a PUA/Red-Pill lexicon, shut down PUAHate almost immediatelyijoc.org. PUAHate was closed on May 24, 2014 (the day after Rodger’s attacks)link.springer.com, and its replacement Sluthate appeared just two days later. Users on Sluthate and other sites intensified the turn toward black‑pill ideology. Within incel forums, Rodger was swiftly enshrined as the “Supreme Gentleman” or “Saint Elliot,” and his actions were portrayed as a form of martyrdomijoc.orgadl.org.
Major Online Communities (2014–2020s)
After 2014 the incel community fragmented and migrated to new sites. The short‑lived Sluthate forum gave way in mid‑2015 to Lookism.net, a forum explicitly named for the belief that “looks matter” and that society is ruled by a physical hierarchylink.springer.comadl.org. (PUAHate + Sluthate + Lookism were later nicknamed the “PSL” forums in incel slanglink.springer.com.) Other dedicated incel boards soon appeared. In 2017 the site incels.me (later incels.is, now Incels.is) became a central community for self-identified incels. By 2021 the three largest incel forums were Incels.is, Lookism.net, and Looksmax.org (a forum focused on extreme appearance improvement)link.springer.com. Around 2019–2020 a slew of niche boards emerged (e.g. Blackpill.org, LooksTheory, NonCucksUnited, You’re Not Alone, etc.)link.springer.com.
Forums with thousands of members also developed on other platforms. On Reddit, the r/incels subreddit was active for years (before its 2017 ban), and its successor r/Braincels lasted until 2018link.springer.com. At times incel groups also used 4chan, 8chan, Tumblr, and even video channels. (The Southern Poverty Law Center later noted that the online incel subculture had become part of a broader male-supremacist ecosystemen.wikipedia.org.) In these spaces, incels coined a characteristic slang (e.g. “beta,” “Chad,” “Stacy,” “LDAR” for “Lie Down and Rot,” “Going ER” for emulating Elliot Rodgeradl.orgtheguardian.com).
Major forums:
- Love-shy.com (2003–present): Early support forum for shy or lonely peopleen.wikipedia.org. Over time it became a gathering place largely for men with involuntary celibacy.
- PUAHate (2009–2014): Forum for disillusioned pick-up artists; evolved into a proto-incel communitylink.springer.comtheguardian.com. Closed after Elliot Rodger’s attack.
- Sluthate (2014): Brief successor to PUAHate, quickly supplanted by Lookismlink.springer.com.
- Lookism.net (2015–present): Forum named for “lookism” (appearance bias); became a large hub for black-pill and incel discussionlink.springer.com.
- Incels.me/incels.is/Incels.is (2017–present): One of the largest incel forums, often cited as a place “where incels meet”link.springer.com.
- Looksmax.org (2018–present): Site devoted to “looksmaxxing” (extreme self-improvement) and incel ideologylink.springer.com.
- Reddit subreddits: r/incels (2012–2017), r/Braincels (2017–2018) – mainstream forums for incel discussion, both eventually bannedlink.springer.com.
- Newer forums: Blackpill.org, *, NonCucksUnited, YoureNotAlone, Blackpill.me, and others emerged around 2019–2020link.springer.com, reflecting further splintering of the community.
The “Pill” Ideology and Terminology
The color-coded “pill” metaphor became central to manosphere identity. As noted, red pill and blue pill come from The Matrixbritannica.comadl.org. In incel/manosphere usage:
- Red pill: awakening to a supposed truth about gender relations (e.g. that feminism has empowered women at men’s expense)adl.orgbritannica.com. Among incels the red pill is often framed in terms of the 80/20 rule: the idea that 80% of women only date the top 20% of men, leaving most men without partnersadl.orglink.springer.com. Red-pilled men are encouraged to fight the system (for incels, by “improving” themselves to join the top 20%)adl.org.
- Blue pill: acceptance of mainstream, feminist‑leaning society; “remaining blissfully ignorant” of alleged gender truthsadl.orgbritannica.com. To someone who’s “redpilled,” everyone else is “bluepilled.”adl.org
- White pill: an optimistic worldview or belief in positive change, adopted by some in the manosphere as a counter to cynicismadl.org. (White-pill rhetoric stresses confidence and hope in one’s ideology, and it has been used by various extremist groups.)adl.org
- Black pill: the most pessimistic stance. First popularized around 2011 on the Omega Virgin Revolt blogadl.org, it means embracing a belief that one’s dating fortunes are entirely determined by immutable factors (genes/looks) and therefore hopeless. Black-pilled incels argue the “sexual marketplace” is fixed by geneticsadl.orgen.wikipedia.org. As Britannica summarizes, a person who takes the black pill accepts “the futility of fighting against a feminist system”britannica.com. In incel forums, “black-pilled” ideology often implies there is no escape from involuntary celibacy except suicide (“LDAR”) or violence (“going ER,” a reference to Elliot Rodger)adl.orgbritannica.com.
Other color-pill terms exist (e.g. purple pill for moderation, pink pill for female incels), but red, blue, white, and black are the most common in incel discourse. These pills serve as shorthand for complex attitudes about dating, gender, and politics.
Evolution of the Ideology and Culture
Over the 2010s the manosphere (“men’s sphere”) grew into an interconnected network of forums, blogs, and media. Academic observers note that incel forums emphasize a hierarchical worldview where social status and sexual access are seen as unchangeable rewards for a genetically elite fewlink.springer.comlink.springer.com. They popularize concepts like lookism (the belief that good looks alone govern success) and hypergamy (the idea that women “trade up” to more attractive men)link.springer.comlink.springer.com. In these spaces, women are often cast as a monolithic other (“Stacys”) who allegedly scorn ordinary men (“betas”), echoing classic PUA or Red-Pill tropestheguardian.comlink.springer.com. For example, Elliot Rodger’s posts on PUAHate echoed the “Red Pill constitution” by denigrating women’s rationalitytheguardian.com.
Incel forums also spawned dark humor and slang. Members might rate faces (e.g. “I’m a 4/10”) or deride “Chads,” “Femoids,” and “roasties.” Extreme terms (the “dog pill” about women preferring dogs, or the “rape pill” among a fringe) circulatedadl.orgadl.org. However, all such language reinforced a shared narrative of male victimhood: a feeling of “aggrieved entitlement” that society (and women) owe these men sex or intimacyen.wikipedia.org. Many posts lament the impact of feminism and social change, claiming it has left incels in a zero-sum trapen.wikipedia.orglink.springer.com.
At its core, black-pill ideology synthesizes these threads into a closed system: personal appearance and genetics are framed as everything, and any failure is blamed entirely on fate or conspiracy. A Vox journalist summarized: “what unites all incels is something they call the Blackpill” – the conviction that “women’s sexual freedom has created a mating market in which 80 percent of men get none of the action.”en.wikipedia.orglink.springer.com.
Dangers and Societal Impact
Researchers and law enforcement have noted that incel/black-pill communities can have harmful real-world effects. By the late 2010s the Southern Poverty Law Center classified incels under the broader male-supremacist movement, and analysts observed that the incel worldview shares hallmarks of extremist ideology (rigid hierarchies, us-vs-them scapegoating, glorification of violence)en.wikipedia.orglink.springer.com. For example, a SN Social Sciences study found many incel posts depict a “strict and impenetrable hierarchical world” and a clear demarcation between “good” in-group (the incels) and “evil” out-group (women)link.springer.com. This echoes previous scholarly observations of an “aggrieved entitlement” mindset in which rejected men blame women and express hatreden.wikipedia.org.
Public safety officials have treated incel violence as an emerging threat. In early 2020, the Texas Department of Public Safety warned that “offenders who identify themselves as incels” pose a growing terror risklink.springer.com. Similarly, research reviews note multiple mass attacks (Rodger 2014; Alek Minassian’s van attack in 2018; others) were motivated by incel ideologyijoc.orgbritannica.com. Online, incel forums often contain overt praise of these attackers: Elliot Rodger became mythologized as “Saint Elliot” on some boards, and incels have openly lauded his ideologyijoc.orgadl.org.
At the same time, most incel forums reinforce isolation and despair. The death‑cult dynamic is stark: as ADL reports, “taking the black pill leaves a person with relatively few options” – essentially “lie down and rot,” suicide, or emulating violence (e.g. “going ER”)adl.org. Incel sites abound with suicidal talk and, tragically, sometimes even encouragement to kill oneself. When some users do mock or troll the discourse, they too contribute to an echo chamber where dissenting opinions are unwelcometheguardian.com.
In sum, the black-pill ideology evolved from online subcultures of frustrated men into a tightly-knit anti-feminist narrative. Academic analysis shows it reflects broader social anxieties (economic precarity, changing gender roles) translated into a toxic subcultureijoc.org. Terminology like “red‑pilled” has even seeped into mainstream political discourse (Candace Owens’s “RedPilled Black” channel or political memes), indicating how these once fringe ideas have influenced internet culture. Scholars urge attention to incel forums as an example of how misogyny and defeatism can self-reinforce online. At the same time, some within the movement have tried (since about 2019) to “rebrand” incel identity in less hateful termsen.wikipedia.org – suggesting a complex spectrum of beliefs under the incel label.
Sources: Academic studies and journalism trace the pickup-artist roots and forum history of incel/blackpill communitieslink.springer.comijoc.org. The Anti-Defamation League and SPLC have documented the extremist character of “pill” ideologiesadl.orgen.wikipedia.org. Contemporary reporting (e.g. The Guardian) and encyclopedias (Britannica) illuminate how the Matrix “pill” metaphor was repurposed in misogynistic subculturesbritannica.combritannica.com. These sources together map the chronological evolution of red/blue/white/black‑pill ideas and their rise in online forums, as well as their social impact.
