Austin bomber Mark Anthony Conditt: Incel or normie?
By David Futrelle
The motives behind the deadly string of bombings that 23-year-old Mark Anthony Conditt unleashed upon Austin before blowing himself up remain a mystery. A press conference yesterday, in which police revealed that Conditt had made a 25-minute recording confessing his crimes, left observers of the case with far more questions than answers.
Austin police chief Brian Manley said very little about the actual content of Conditt’s “confession,” telling reporters only that it seemed like “the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life that led him to this point” rather than the manifesto of a terrorist.
But it’s nearly impossible to disentangle the personal and the political, and so many were left wondering just what it was that was so “challenging” to this “very challenged young man.”
Were his “challenges” sexual or romantic? Over the past decade we’ve seen a succession of men (mostly young, some middle-aged) angered and frustrated by their inability to attract the women they feel they’re entitled to take their revenge on the world, and women in particular, through violence — most famously Isla Vista killer Elliot Rodger, who left behind a 100-page misogynist manifesto, and LA Fitness shooter George Sodini, a failed Pickup Artist.
And then there’s the steady parade of murders we see on local news carried out by men recently rejected by girlfriends and wives; these murders, which often end in suicide, are so common they rarely even make the national news.
So it’s hardly surprising that some are asking whether Conditt was an “incel,” that is, a man furious at the women of the world for refusing to sleep with him.
Among those asking the question? A lot of self-described incels. And they’re asking because some of them, at least, want to claim him as one of their own,
Incels — members of what has become one of the most terrifyingly poisonous misogynistic subcultures in the western world — have long had a fondness for mass killers.
They’ve famously canonized Elliot Rodger as “Saint Elliot,” a sort of patron saint for their wretched community. And after the Parkland school shootings on Valentine’s Day many in the incel world celebrated shooter Nikolas Cruz as a new incel “savior.”
Incels are nearly as enthusiastic about shooters who aren’t, or at least aren’t obviously, motivated by fury borne of sexual entitlement, gloating over the “normies” Stephen Paddock mowed down in Las Vegas and all the “Stacies” killed in the Manchester Arena bombing last May.
In the Braincels subreddit — the slightly less obnoxious replacement for the absolutely horrific, now-banned Incels subreddit — one poster breathlessly reported “THIS JUST IN: Austin, TX package bomber confirmed ugly, home-schooled INCEL autist, possibly manlet.”
“The hero we need,” replied another Braincel regular, before adding a disclaimer: “The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.” ”
“The girls deserved it,” added a third commenter, the somewhat alarmingly named IncelTactician. (In fact, most of those harmed in Conditt’s bombing spree were male. His bombs killed a teenage boy and a man in his late thirties, and injured two more men. Three women (not “girls”) were injured as well, including the mother of the teen boy murdered by Conditt and a woman in her 70s.)
On Incels.me, several regular commenters seemed convinced Conditt was one of them, at least in spirit. “Elliot Rodger 2.0,” declared a commenter known as Big Ghey. “Unabomber incel” suggested another.
“I suspect so as well, can’t wait for the manifesto to leak,” added RichCel.
What a dumb faggot though, he had a good thing going and then ruined it by going to the FedEx store with his dumbass disguise and a powered cellphone. Guess he wanted to get caught.
This is what happens tho when you criminalize normal male behavior and turn white men into fucking pariahs. It is a perversion of natural order and I am not at all surprised it happened in Austin. If Texas had any balls, they would move the state capital elsewhere and wall off that cuck cesspool.
On Lookism.Net — successor to the notorious incel-infested hate site PUAHate — several commenters celebrated Conditt’s alleged inceldom. “High IQ cel,” wrote someone called jawanonics, “obviously read Unabomber manifesto and is saving society.”
Another lamented that he personally would never live up to Conditt’s fine example. “[H]es my age and achieving great things in life,” sighed Surgery+Roids=Ascension, “while I have nothing to show.”
But many of the internet’s incels remained unconvinced that Conditt was an Elliot Rodger-style incel saint. Not because the people he killed were men rather than women. Not because he left behind no angry 100-page manifesto a la “Saint Elliot.”
No, the problem was that he was just too good-looking.
“That guy is pretty good looking actually,” wrote an incel REdditor called Shamijay.
Eyes a little close set is all. 7/10, could easily pass as a Chad slayer based on face alone. Don’t know about his other stats. Fail thread.
Other incel Redditors agreed. “He is a mid tier normie,” one wrote. “That face mogs all truecels.” (Translation: He’s an average-looking guy with a more masculine face than any true incel.)
“this guy isn’t ugly,” wrote another skeptic on Lookism.ne, “he has ideal colouring and canthal tilt, also a good face shape, but sub human eyebrows.”
“he does not look like an incel” another agreed, “plus he did gymnastic, parkour et… snowboarding, incels don’t do that shit!”
To the typical incel, apparently, killers are heroes, while snowboarders deserve to die.
So was Mark Conditt an incel? I’ve seen no evidence so far to convince me he was, and his choice of victims, at least, shows no sign of the poisonous misogyny that inspired the rage of men like Elliot Rodger and George Sodini. But we won’t know for sure until we know exactly what was in that 25-minute confession he left behind.
Of course he was one of them. Human filth has more in common than it does differences.
It’s the group who lives an empathy free life and injects toxic masculinity between their toes
Show this to the Deplorables. See what new contortions they use.
Unless the police release his wrist circumference, we may never know.
OT: HR McMaster out, John Bolton in. Sounds like more war is on the way.
If hatred of Others is a criterion, then he is One Of Them. Otherwise, not so much.
Hard as it may be for them to believe not every young man who isn’t having sex is upset about it. Conditt was apparently a conservative Christian, so perhaps he believed he shouldn’t have sex outside of marriage. Unless he specifically said so someplace we’ll probably never know. Of course if something like that does come out they’ll decide he’s a cuck, beta male, or something similar.
Is there any scumbag they won’t try to claim?
Incels? Here I go to Urban Dictionary to try and figure out wtf these guys are even talking about.
Canthal tilt? Subhuman eyebrows?
I have never in my life heard a woman who’s attracted to men say anything like “well his canthal tilt is totally hot but unfortunately he has subhuman eyebrows so I’m going to friendzone him.”
I’m also wondering why gymnast rules out incel. Sure gymnasts are buff, but male gymnasts – pommel horse specialists aside – are usually short. Olympic silver medalist Oleg Verniaiev is only 5’3″ for example. I thought that according to the sad boner set, a man has to be over 6 feet tall to get laid?
I had to google canthal tilt as I’ve never heard about it before, and the first page is pretty much all manospere types and plastic surgeons since they’re apparently the only ones who even know what a canthal tilt is. I really have to wonder if all this crap about “wrist circumference” and “canthal tilt” is just a conspiracy by the beauty industry in order to dupe men into spending thousands on their looks.
Wasn’t it Paul Elam that used to say that women were made to feel sad and anxious so that they would spend all their money on
beautyproducts? Seems to me that Elam was looking at the wrong gender. The sheer amount of things that some men worry about being “wrong” with themselves cosmetically just boggles my mind as a woman.Here these deplorables go again
Claimin’ credit for another’s crimes
I’m runnin’ out of material
As well as clever rhymes
Say it won’t get worse
As in pulls a hearse
In the background of the shot
Story twists and turns
As the great sun burns
And they claim a lit grill ain’t hot
Tragedy and then as farce
In their minds to corrupt our hearts
Maybe it’s true
I just hope to god we get through
I was just thinking earlier today that it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Incel community lays claim to this guy.
Sigh.
@calmdown
It means “involuntarily celibate” basically they can not find a sexual partner and they think that is somehow a human rights violation.
In other words very angry and entitled misogynists.
They do know claiming that certain terrorist actions willy nilly are tactics actual terrorists use right? Oh wait nvm we’re talking about Incels here.
A meteorite could fall from the sky and kill some people and incels would claim it as one of their own.
The meteorite was mad because no ice was willing to trail behind it like those Chad comets. What else was it supposed to do besides fling itself into the earth in hopes of killing some evil Staceys? Panspermia is the only way they can even hope to spread their liquid fucking gold seed!
@Fabe
I have this vague memory of daesh calming responsibility for an electrical fire once,
so if the incels are following the same playbook they would do just that.
That’s a fairly conventional feminist critique of modern capitalism, not an MRA talking point. It’s not even very controversial, there’s plenty of evidence backing it up.
The heck is a manlet?
I’ll never understand why some people idolize cowards like this.
We know the bomber was a conservative christian. This makes him being a right wing terrorist entirely more possible.
While conservative christianity is certainly misogynistic the attached purity culture makes it unlikely for male adherents to identify with incel or PUA culture.
Ha ha canthal tilt!!!!
There may be something in it though. My new man* has awesome eyebrows. Never thought about canthal tilt though – but maybe he has the right sort. I could stare at them for ages.
Oh, he also has small wrists. Something I wouldn’t have noticed had I not seen stuff here. I have massive wrists. Oh noes!!!
*also we’ve been together for almost a year, so maybe not new man anymore.
I understand “manlet” is a manosphere term (typically pejorative) for men who lack the sufficient height/muscle bulk/wrist circumference to be considered “officially” masculine or good looking. If Conditt “qualified” physically as a manlet, incels could more easily feel justified claiming him as a fellow incel.
In practice, it seems that individual incels first decide whether or not they want to claim a particular murderer, and then try to interpret physical cues according to that, often arguing fruitlessly against other incels.
An evolved aglet.
rugbyyogi:
You can preserve that new man smell for longer with careful valeting.
My eyebrows don’t look dissimilar to Conditt’s. Does this mean I have sub-human eyebrows too? Why has no one told me this – all this time I’ve been wandering around with sub-human eyebrows and no one even thought to mention it to me?
@wwth
Re gymnasts, I’m guessing the fact that they’re in shape and they exercise trumps the fact that they’re not very tall, on average? Plus maybe that all gymnasts tend to look attractive when they’re performing?
Also,
I haven’t seen the entire context of this, but it reminded me of what Katamount and EJ commented on in the previous thread, and what many others have noted. Claim a thing, then insist you were joking/fictionalising if people call you out.
Also calls to mind that recent piece on Jordan Peterson, where the author noted that JP tends to say nothing much specifically, so that it’s impossible to zero in on what the problem is – he always has deniability.
Hey, Troubelle!
Tho it might seem like it’s getting tough
To write poetry that’s more than just fluff
You got meter and timing
So just keep on rhyming
‘Cause we really like reading your stuff!
Hope you’re doing well!
There are no words. These critters beggar belief.
I would like to hope that no-one ever is unfortunate enough to be in a relationship with any of them. Sadly, I know from personal experience that they may well find someone with a very low self-esteem and make her life miserable while leaving scars on an already damaged psyche. I know because some twenty years ago, I was that person. I thought I could “help” him, and I ended up even more fucked up than I was before I got involved with him. Some of the things he did still make me sick when I think about them.
To carry on from what Mish mentioned, I’d like to copy this from a comment EJ made on the previous thread:
I think that’s the crux of it, put in the most simple of words. But this is why I really want to know what it is that makes these people what they are. In considering the lines they draw between “normie” and whatever the hell they call themselves, they’re people who both claim to know how the world really is, but are so insular and withdrawn from society that their online interactions no longer resemble the conversations that take place face to face. Not only that, but their sense of consequence has been skewed as well. Their nihilistic outlook contains a kernel of truth insofar as people can be deceptive in their outward appearances, but they then use that to assume “normies” are no better than they are, which is not the case. To them, the internet is its own self-contained ecosystem, set apart from the world where families take walks in the park and host parties for friends and make connections at clubs or church, none of which involves celebrating mass murder.
How many blubbering internet tough guys have we seen once the authorities take an interest in them, once that outside world bursts that internet bubble? They’ve been trying to bring their language, trappings and contempt for people into the real world, then immediately face blowback from decent society.
Here’s one example I remember reading about shortly after my trip to Nova Scotia: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/military-personnel-proud-boy-s-incident-jobs-1.4269952
While none of these guys were charged, as guys who were mere months out of basic training, their military careers were pretty much done, and that’s going to follow them through life. Maybe they’ve learned a lesson, maybe not, but it’s not a good sign when these guys are serving on military vessels.
I remember reading Jay’s Storify thread on this topic and I think he hit the nail on the head. He chronicled the use of Chan culture thinking during GamerGate and with so many of the alt-right’s architects (Milo, Spencer, Gavin, Bannon) farming footsoldiers from those ranks, no wonder it’s permeated their language. Look no further than the article I linked:
Yeah, the Mi’kmaq activists who have had to live with the legacy of Edward Cornwallis and the Sixties Scoop and Residential Schools don’t give a shit about your little “Western Chauvenism” club or the dumb iconography and acronyms you use. This isn’t a Reddit shitposting forum, this is living breathing history, history these guys apparently either never learned or were so far removed from that they felt they could show up in Fred Perry shirts and a Red Ensign and antagonize the Mi’kmaq community. For what? For “lulz”? To show up “SJWs”? What’s there to be “proud” of?
You know, it’s times like this, I wonder “there but for the grace of God go I.” I’m a pretty introverted chap who spends a lot of time in front of screens and I’m diagnosed with depression. I can only imagine that if I didn’t have the home life I had or if I didn’t have access to a therapist whether or not I would have become one of these guys. I like to think I wouldn’t, because I value history as I do, but who knows… scary thought.
I think the “plus he did gymnastic, parkour et… snowboarding, incels don’t do that shit!” quote is quite telling. Those things have nothing to do with how attractive you are, or how well you can talk to the opposite sex, or how perfect your earlobe to thumbnail ratio is. If you’re physically capable, all else you need to have to do parkour is some ok shoes, the ability to look at some tutorial Youtube videos, and the actual gumption to go outside, try something new and totally suck at it for a few weeks without quitting.
I think the reason incels don’t do gymnastics is not that gymnasts are all good looking Chads, but that doing it requires effort and risk and commitment and putting yourself out there. I’d bet incels don’t learn ancient Norse, or volunteer at the animal shelter, or do improv theatre or knit hats or anything other than rage at the world on the internet.
I really, really can’t wrap my head around all this entitlement these young guys are expressing. As a teenager, I was a thin, awkward, acned, straight-haired (white girls couldn’t have straight hair in the 1980s and be considered attractive) and woebegone human being. I didn’t have a boyfriend, and if any boys noticed me, it was with contempt.
It never occurred to me, to blame my problems on anyone but myself. Life was a party, and I simply didn’t have what it took to be invited.
I read Elliott Rodger’s ridiculous manifesto. I wish I hadn’t. I actually hated him even more after I’d finished reading it.
@The Real Cie
Hugs offered
All you really need to know is that the Proud Boys are named after a song from the Broadway stage version of Disney’s Aladdin, “Proud of Your Boy.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_of_Your_Boy
Now I know the meaning of “canthal tilt”. As the old saying goes, you learn something new each day.
I put this on the wrong thread! woops.
—
Of course they claim him as one of theirs, just as they claimed the other mass murderers. These guys have the exact same motivation as any other patriarchal man; any man who’s steeped in the traditional roles we tell our children as a society. They want power and prestige. They want to be respected and feared, just like any other dude – just more. Claiming a well-known, powerful, feared person lines up exactly with what these jerks want.
Did he call himself an Incel? Don’t know, don’t care. He raised a flag and the Incels are rallying to it, that’s all that matters.
@EJ, not that I think what you’ve said is wrong! You’re quite right, I think. But this is a different lens on that. They flip between “just a joke” and “deadly serious” so quickly because all of the memes, all of the arguing, all of the beliefs are just vehicles. Power and prestige is the destination. At the core of their beliefs is a desire for power and acclaim – power over the out-group and acclaim within the in-group.
That’s how the doublespeak comes so easily, that’s how the death of meaning doesn’t seem to bother them. Their goals don’t need defense from anything we do or say because we’re the outgroup, the intended victim, the lesser. They just feel they deserve power over us, and any noises we might make are only worthy of laughter to them.
That’s a possible way to look at it at least! I’m most likely wrong.
@MrsObedMarsh
Yeah, I remember seeing The Young Turks report that… back when I watched them. It’s fitting insofar as it combines unoriginality with abject lameness.
From what I read of the Proud Boys, they’re basically asshole frat jerks that think the world owes them respect for conforming to the macho image of “real men.” What I found disturbing about them is that part of their initiation is to literally assault somebody, so the fact that these jackasses were members of the military (one I saw in a police uniform) makes me nervous for what these guys might do once their military tenures are up.
@Dormousing_it
I felt crushed by it when I was that age, so I have experience with it. All the media swirling about the high school experience (save Degrassi) aimed at boys since the 80s has basically been variations on Porky’s. You’re not a “real man” until you “get laid,” and you “get laid” by wearing a woman down until she sees how wonderful you are in a series of humiliating but consequence-free misadventures. Or Betty Childs is supposed to see how big a jerk Stan Gable is and hook up with you, the humble Lewis Skolnick. But with the male ego being as fragile as it is, a lot of guys don’t even put themselves in the position to be humiliated by rejection; they just stew in jealousy and self-loathing and do that long enough, you get the incel community.
Now that I think about it, I think the reason the quote-unquote “incel” community exists at all is due to toxic masculinity combining with poor media literacy. Life isn’t Revenge of the Nerds.
I love Degrassi. Both the original and the next generation.
I like how the dealt with Claude’s suicide. Since he liked Caitlin and she rejected him, the narrative could’ve easily been mean bitches cause boys to commit suicide. But even though she felt guilty and traumatized by it, the writers were clear that she was not the cause of his mental health issues and they made clear that he had been a bit creepy and stalkerish not a nice guy who should’ve have been given a chance.
Unlike the next gen when Rick becomes a school shooter as a direct result of bullying and the narrative blames Spinner and Jay. Never mind that the reason everybody hated Rick was because he nearly killed Terri. The writers wanted us to just forget all about that.
Katamount, Mish and Scildfreja, I shall intellectualise with you at length when I have more spoons. However, that is not now.
@The Real Cie:
I’m so sorry. Nobody deserves that, but especially not such a lovely, funny and benevolent person as you.
@Dormousing_it:
@Katamount:
Being a young person in western society is an emotionally difficult process. My hugs go out to you both for that, and I’m glad you survived. So many don’t.
To all the lurkers who may be in that age bracket and feel that way: despite how it may feel, you are not alone. If nobody else cares for you, please know that I care for you; and if you feel that you have nobody to talk to, then please reach out.
Searing, piercing side eyes from space! Not gonna go into a racism rant, everyone else, including folks in other threads have. Just… ugh…
@Katamount:
I understand now, the pressure put on young men to gain sexual experience, at any price. I used to wonder if I’d missed something…not ever having had a relationship with a young man my own age. My spouse has assured me I did not.😉
@EJ (The Other One):
Thank you. I realize today that my trials were minor. Plenty of people have it much worse. I echo you, to any young lurkers out there – you aren’t alone.
Canthal tilt, which I had to look up as well, seems to be the male equivalent of a thigh gap…an utterly random feature that’s being sold as some kind of beauty benchmark. Ugh.
@Jo
I wouldn’t really call it a MRA talking point either. It was more “the feminists make women feel sad and afraid about men because they want to sell makeup!”, rather than anything that actually made sense.
I just find it ironic that any manospherian type would want to turn a blind eye to the body shaming of men, or worse do it themself. Because it wasn’t a bunch of “Stacys” that were prattling about canthal tilt when I googled it. If they feel miserable and put down, maybe they should take a good look at who their friends are first, before they go complaining about everyone else in the world.
What really confuses me is that they call him an ‘autist’. What does that mean? Does it mean he was autistic? Why is that relevant even???
@Kay A. Ziraphale (they/them)
They think it works like some “get-out-of-jail-free card”.
@Makroth – cowboy Jacobin from Hell
*facepalms*
What? Just? What????
I’m autistic and the idea that it’s a ‘get-out-of-jail-free card’ makes me actually sick to my stomach. (That might be lack of food, but that’s beside the point) What the actual hell though? Autistic people are just as much responsible for their own actions as neurotypical people? Even hurting VIDEO GAME people makes me feel bad for them! What in the heck? (Sorry if I’m incomprehensible, I’m very mad)
@Kay A. Ziraphale
They think an inability to read emotions and/or social cues is the same as having no feelings/empathy for other living things.
@kupo
That makes me too mad to reasonably talk about. Send y’all on another article.
They’ll use anything and anybody they feel like as a shield for their assholery.