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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Science
Matthew Cantor

The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has ‘incel’ slang crossed into the mainstream?

Pixelated close-up of a face with mouth open and overflowing with emojis, including angry faces, skulls, flames, robots, and flexed arms
‘I am seeing more of a spike [in incel language] in the past few months than I think I have in my entire career,’ says linguist Adam Aleksic. Illustration: Alvaro Dominguez/Guardian Design/Getty Images

A recent tweet from the US Department of Defense boasts about the killing capabilities of the US military as follows: “Low cortisol. Locked in. Lethalitymaxxing”. To many, that will sound as indecipherable as the teenagers that discuss “high-tier Beckys” or the New York Times warning of “Tate-pilled” boys.

Many will have now seen the 6 February tweet that went globally viral, viewed more than 24m times and since discussed in endless analyses and explainers:

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