Oct 11, 2023·edited Dec 28, 2023Liked by Isaac Simpson
Thank you for considering my work in such a thoughtful, multilayered manner.
Appreciate the consideration greatly, and will write up a response on my own SubStack later on.
EDIT Dec. 29, 2023:
For posterity's sake thought I'd post some thoughts I had on Arbogast's review of my novel, exploring the critique he brought forward regarding the book's racial subtext and the literary idea of the "racial power fantasy":
God has a plan for you, anon... and you're not going to like it... until you come to the realization that the self is a dead end, and the blame game is a dead end... and every sexual encounter is a crap shoot. Oh... there is one more thing... women are not attracted to the stench of an embittered and desperate man. No woman in the world is looking for a man as lost as you.
Incels would be the perfect Leftist males in many ways. Low testosterone, ugly, resentful, passive, self-hating, insane, depraved. If they were simply more agreeable and conformist they could be AntiFa sorts and ocassionally land some obese chicks or drug addicted theythems.
>incels are not too different from the bog-standard stereotype of aimless millennials or over-socialized Zoomers
Wait, what? Who on the planet is calling Gen Z "over-socialized"? That's certainly not supported by data - they have fewer friends & fewer strong relationships than previous generations.
It is certainly true that they spend a lot of time on social media, but even there, their time is spent less socially than previous generations. Rather than interacting with friends, they spend most of their time consuming social-media content produced by celebrities & influencers.
I would say, rather, that Gen Z experiences a constant high level of what we may call "social stimulation" - but they are not getting nearly the same opportunities for "social feedback" as people used to. Their socialization is one-way. This results in the lizard brain seeing no feedback for its social output, and feeling neglected and ignored as a result.
Imagine being in school, or at a bar, or in any social environment - but nobody responds to anything you say, nobody meets your eyes, nobody even seems to know you're there. It would be an embarrassing and anxiety-inducing experience. That's how one-way social media use makes the lizard brain feel. The fewer actual friends one has - in the incel's case, none - and the more time one spends on social media - in the incel's case, a lot - the worse the feeling.
Having observed "incel" spaces for some time, the old stereotype of "skinny geek loser" is no longer really accurate. The majority of "incels" now are pretty regular teen and twenty-something guys who don't have many friends and who seldom get noticed by women. They are most often just really, really average in terms of appearance, background & education. Your prototypical "incel" in the current year should be a mixed-race, somewhat-overweight, B-student who goes to community college while living with his parents. (Yes, mixed-race - you would be shocked how much "white supremacist content" is produced by mixed-race people, who blame their mixed racial heritage for their social difficulties.)
The "incelsphere" is expanding not because its messaging is particularly convincing or appealing - rather, it's that more & more young men really are single virgins with no friends. People in that situation are going to be disgruntled no matter how much "therapy" they get. There's just no "solving" the incel problem without addressing the crash in socialization we have experienced in Western society. If anything, it's affecting "normies" a lot worse than weirdos & loners. The youth suicide rate is skyrocketing, and they aren't all "incels" - most are normal kids with friends, many are women. One common recipe for youth suicide in the present year seems to be prolonged bullying via social media resulting from some embarrassing recorded incident, combined with being too distant from real-life friends to find any solace there. Incels, to their benefit, are protected from this torture, because no one notices them at all.
Background: I spent a decade in Montana. Months ago, I stumbled onto your take on Bozeman and Big Sky, and all the way through I was chuckling grimly. After reading the review of "Incel" by ARX-Han, I felt the urge to take on the voice of anon's no-nonsense therapist. I am interested in sex and sexual neuroticism, in all its forms.
Thank you for considering my work in such a thoughtful, multilayered manner.
Appreciate the consideration greatly, and will write up a response on my own SubStack later on.
EDIT Dec. 29, 2023:
For posterity's sake thought I'd post some thoughts I had on Arbogast's review of my novel, exploring the critique he brought forward regarding the book's racial subtext and the literary idea of the "racial power fantasy":
https://www.decentralizedfiction.com/p/literary-fiction-as-racial-power
Awesome write up. I’m in.
free on Kindle today and tomorrow!
God has a plan for you, anon... and you're not going to like it... until you come to the realization that the self is a dead end, and the blame game is a dead end... and every sexual encounter is a crap shoot. Oh... there is one more thing... women are not attracted to the stench of an embittered and desperate man. No woman in the world is looking for a man as lost as you.
greg it's a book review
Two for two
hahahahahaha
"Eeeh, what's that sonny? I thought this was my Facebook. Block."
Incels would be the perfect Leftist males in many ways. Low testosterone, ugly, resentful, passive, self-hating, insane, depraved. If they were simply more agreeable and conformist they could be AntiFa sorts and ocassionally land some obese chicks or drug addicted theythems.
>incels are not too different from the bog-standard stereotype of aimless millennials or over-socialized Zoomers
Wait, what? Who on the planet is calling Gen Z "over-socialized"? That's certainly not supported by data - they have fewer friends & fewer strong relationships than previous generations.
It is certainly true that they spend a lot of time on social media, but even there, their time is spent less socially than previous generations. Rather than interacting with friends, they spend most of their time consuming social-media content produced by celebrities & influencers.
I would say, rather, that Gen Z experiences a constant high level of what we may call "social stimulation" - but they are not getting nearly the same opportunities for "social feedback" as people used to. Their socialization is one-way. This results in the lizard brain seeing no feedback for its social output, and feeling neglected and ignored as a result.
Imagine being in school, or at a bar, or in any social environment - but nobody responds to anything you say, nobody meets your eyes, nobody even seems to know you're there. It would be an embarrassing and anxiety-inducing experience. That's how one-way social media use makes the lizard brain feel. The fewer actual friends one has - in the incel's case, none - and the more time one spends on social media - in the incel's case, a lot - the worse the feeling.
Having observed "incel" spaces for some time, the old stereotype of "skinny geek loser" is no longer really accurate. The majority of "incels" now are pretty regular teen and twenty-something guys who don't have many friends and who seldom get noticed by women. They are most often just really, really average in terms of appearance, background & education. Your prototypical "incel" in the current year should be a mixed-race, somewhat-overweight, B-student who goes to community college while living with his parents. (Yes, mixed-race - you would be shocked how much "white supremacist content" is produced by mixed-race people, who blame their mixed racial heritage for their social difficulties.)
The "incelsphere" is expanding not because its messaging is particularly convincing or appealing - rather, it's that more & more young men really are single virgins with no friends. People in that situation are going to be disgruntled no matter how much "therapy" they get. There's just no "solving" the incel problem without addressing the crash in socialization we have experienced in Western society. If anything, it's affecting "normies" a lot worse than weirdos & loners. The youth suicide rate is skyrocketing, and they aren't all "incels" - most are normal kids with friends, many are women. One common recipe for youth suicide in the present year seems to be prolonged bullying via social media resulting from some embarrassing recorded incident, combined with being too distant from real-life friends to find any solace there. Incels, to their benefit, are protected from this torture, because no one notices them at all.
Background: I spent a decade in Montana. Months ago, I stumbled onto your take on Bozeman and Big Sky, and all the way through I was chuckling grimly. After reading the review of "Incel" by ARX-Han, I felt the urge to take on the voice of anon's no-nonsense therapist. I am interested in sex and sexual neuroticism, in all its forms.