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The Conversation
The Conversation
Farid Zaid, Senior Lecturer, Psychology, Monash University

How the word ‘incel’ got away from us

Javier Bermudez Zayas/Shutterstock

Imagine a young man whose voice has been worn down by years of feeling invisible. Plain, numb and bitter, the “incel” tries to explain the kind of hopelessness most of us would rather not confront:

I believed I was unlovable, so who the hell is gonna love me? I won’t get a good job, and if I don’t get a good job, I won’t be able to live the kind of life I want. I’ll be lonely and depressed, and what’s the point of living?

You start seeing life not as something to look forward to, but as something you just have to survive.

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