[Since the thread has been pruned I’ll repost with edits reflecting the discussion]
I define an incel as one whose attitude inherently threatens women, yes. Incels believe they are entitled to sex with a woman or women of their choosing and hate women who won’t give them what they want. That’s an inherently threatening attitude, one shared by perpetrators of especially heinous criminal offenses.
And the culture as a whole does worship murderers. They may not all openly cheer him on, but no-one in that culture is disavowing these killers.
I’m making it about effectiveness – “worthy” not in terms of morality but in terms of “worth the time and effort”. Misogynists (which incels are by definition) hate women and blame them for their own failures and shortcomings and disappointments in the basic and visceral arenas of romance and sex. Racists hate PoC and blame them for their own failures and shortcomings and disappointments in the basic and visceral arenas of money and power.
Now after a lot of hemming and hawing on your part about how the two types of delusional hatred are different and that consequently sympathy would work with misogynists but not racists (without explaining why) you finally allowed that:
So let’s move on from there. Some argue that sympathy will work with racists. I disagree, and further think that it’s about as effective a general strategy as trying sympathy with incels (which is to say, not very).
I think the first step is to brand indulging in various organised forms of misogyny (e.g. incel) or racism (e.g. white supremacy) as unacceptable and shameful and ridiculous in our society while simultaneously acknowledging there are other, non-delusional reasons for the person’s dissatisfaction.
