r/netflix • u/theipaper • May 16 '25
News Article TV show Adolescence sparks rise in hate on world's biggest incel site
https://inews.co.uk/news/tv-show-adolescence-sparks-rise-in-hate-on-worlds-biggest-incel-site-3695181556
u/Choice_Bad_840 May 16 '25
I just want to add that the actor who’s dad in this show, is just a great great actor. So amazing
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u/HorrorSmile3088 May 16 '25
Stephen Graham. He also co-created and co-wrote the show.
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u/Antrikshy May 17 '25
And starred in the movie Boiling Point (2021), with the same director, and also filmed entirely in one shot.
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u/respyrae May 18 '25
Friends with Johnny Depp though
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u/splitcroof92 May 20 '25
Who was been found innocent so wtf is your problem with him?
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u/Royal_Quail16 May 16 '25
Stephen Graham is great in pretty much anything he's in. Usually see him playing sinister characters, so this was a bit of a change for me. Absolutely killed it though.
Check out Bodies since it's a Netflix show. But also series 5 of Line of Duty. There are others, but those ones come immediately to mind.
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u/knitted_beanie May 16 '25
The film Boiling Point is excellent - also Stephen Graham, also a oner, same director as Adolescence (Philip Baranthi)
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u/weedpornography May 16 '25
He was in Snatch! He's an OG
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u/fpl_kris May 16 '25
I was surprised to see that, I thought he looked quite young in Boardwalk empire.
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u/Opposite-Boot-5307 May 16 '25
He's even had small roles in some of the best stuff going back decades like Band of Brothers and Gangs of New York. He can do it all!
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u/fartingboobs May 16 '25
I recognized him as Al Capone from Boardwalk Empire until Adolescence. What a talent he is. Really blew me away.
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u/IntroductionSad1324 May 16 '25
+1 to Bodies, it's a fascinating sort of blend of sci-fi, period piece, and detective show
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u/Aggravating-Win-95 May 17 '25
And here I am realizing I recognize him as Mr. Wormwood in Matilda the musical- and he was excellent!!
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u/Fuckindelishman May 19 '25
Hes quality in everything but this is england and boardwalk empire are my favourites
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u/the_niche_corner May 16 '25
Stephen Graham. His break-out role was in This Is England portraying a racist person.
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u/riomx May 16 '25
For me, it was Tommy in Snatch, but I’m old.
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u/DatzQuickMaths May 17 '25
Same. But I’ll always remember him as Combo - terrifying and intense performance.
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u/Longirl May 17 '25
I rewatched it the other week. His character is chilling, that scene where he crashes the house party and starts on Milky, it’s sinister and intense and one of the most uncomfortable scenes on TV ever made in my opinion.
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u/TwilightZone1751 May 16 '25
Honestly I was not a fan of the show but he kept me watching. He is amazing. I don’t want to give away any spoilers so will just say the one scene where he never said a word but the camera was focused on his face the entire time was perfection. His expressions did all the talking.
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u/spb1 May 17 '25
Yes I think he's the best thing about the show. The other adult actors I find a bit mediocre, but Graham is fascinating to watch here
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u/ComoSeaYeah May 16 '25
He’s one of the best actors around. Love him. My fave of his is a little known miniseries called North Water, also starring Colin Farrell. It takes place in the mid 1800s with a crew on an ill-fated whaling expedition in the Arctic during the whale oil trade. It’s freaking phenomenal.
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u/pbjellythyme May 16 '25
Oooh this sounds awesome.
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u/ComoSeaYeah May 16 '25
I saw it several years ago but now that I brought it up I’m having a hankering for another watch. It’s pretty dark, from the content to the art direction, which I often love especially for period pieces.
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u/elsewherewilliams May 16 '25
It is absolutely mesmerising and Colin Farrell is also excellent. I was genuinely scared of his character
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u/whackadoodle_cracked May 16 '25
Oh I started watching this and then stopped because I wasn't in the mood for it at the time, thanks for reminding me about it!
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u/ComoSeaYeah May 18 '25
You’re very welcome. I’m in a tv glut right now, craving something very dark and gloomy but most of the things I’m currently watching are dark comedies which doesn’t hit the same. Maybe I could watch The North Water again but I want something new. Anyway, hope you like it as much as I did!
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May 16 '25
Now I want to go to the biggest incel forum to see wtf they are saying about the show. But I don't know which one is, and the article does not mention it :/
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May 16 '25
It’s Reddit, we’re on it
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u/MarvTheBandit May 16 '25
Literally clicked to see if they were talking about Reddit 😂
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u/cece1978 May 16 '25
I assumed it was 4chan?
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u/HowwowKnight May 17 '25
That was my initial assumption as well, but they mentioned registered users so I don’t think it’s 4chan
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u/hairynostrils May 16 '25
Got to guess the forum- cuz it’s propaganda
No information there at all
Just a show for entertainment
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u/DONT_BLAME_CANADA May 16 '25
bro what is that username i hate it
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May 16 '25
Our country is in free fall and we have only ourselves to blame. Not me though, I’m blameless
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u/heelspider May 16 '25
Now I want to go to the biggest incel forum to see wtf they are saying about the show
Truth Social?
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u/trash-_-boat May 21 '25
No, there's an actual forum for them. It's often screenshotted over at /r/IncelTear
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u/Lord_Hexogen May 16 '25
Either 4chan or 8chan
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May 16 '25
There is 8-chan now eh?
How fast they grow
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u/Lord_Hexogen May 16 '25
Always has been. I believe in 2019 a New Zealand terrorist was posting there when he was shooting a mosque
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May 16 '25
I remember that one. He transmites.through.fscebook live too if I may not wrong. Sick fuck.
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u/wisebloodfoolheart May 16 '25
There's a bunch of chans. 7chan used to be the second biggest; people would go there when 4chan was down. There was a stoner one too, 420chan. There was a catalog called the Overchan listing all of them.
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u/HotDerivative May 16 '25
The site is called Incel. It’s a massive forum site similar to Reddit and the chans.
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u/NoPantsPowerStance May 19 '25
Didn't that particular site start because the incel subreddits got banned so they needed somewhere else to go? Or is that a different one?
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u/Apprehensive-Bank636 May 16 '25
It’s Reddit
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May 16 '25
Weren't almost all the incel subs closed? At least all of relevant size
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u/billie_eyelashh May 16 '25
They moved to r/TheLastOfUs2
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u/cheersdrive420 May 16 '25
Lmao right?!
“I don’t want to fuck the actress who plays the fictional minor I want to fuck 😭”
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u/steppponme May 16 '25
“I don’t want to fuck the actress who plays the fictional gay minor I want to fuck 😭”
First sub I had to block from showing up in my feed, totally unhinged.
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u/CouncilmanRickPrime May 16 '25
Lol oh shit. I literally argued with one of them on the TV subreddit.
Dude got pissy he was getting downvoted and said "and you wonder why we stay in that sub"
Nobody wonders that, they're all so miserable.
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u/notsure05 May 16 '25 edited May 16 '25
I started replying to their Bella looks insults with “don’t be a coward, show us what you look like” and they all jump to downvote you and say things like “no, you” “lol cope harder”
They’re a bunch of ugly incel losers
Edit: lol just got banned from their sub after I continued to call out the incel behavior
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u/dontbeahater_dear May 16 '25
I hope Bella is counting their money and living their best joyful and talented life.
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u/osterlay May 16 '25
I always wondered why the incels focused on The Last of Us 2 and not Uncharted or even The Witcher which at the time no.3 came out, it was the most hottest game of that year.
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u/SnidgetAsphodel May 16 '25
Makes so much sense. I looked in there earlier for only 5 minutes and it was UNHINGED.
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u/yameteeeeeeeeee May 16 '25
Some meme subreddits have turned into incel subreddits recently. I had to mute them.
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u/noradosmith May 19 '25
Being in reddit for way too long, I can see a patten here that seems to reflect the Internet generally. First you get a small sub, with a funny recurring idea, usually ironic in nature. It gets a bit more popular. Then some right wing jerks come in and either don't understand the irony at all or they take it in a certain way, usually malevolent, turning it into a symbol of hatred and causing all the original people to flee elsewhere, leaving nothing but a cess pit of morons picking over the remains.
Remember when doge was a funny cute dog? Now it's the name of Elon Musk's government project. That's not a sentence anyone would have believed ten years ago.
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u/Life-Cantaloupe-3184 May 16 '25
Yes. The users of those subs just migrated to different ones that weren’t specifically for them instead. I’ve had to mute some of the subs specifically aimed at men and some not even specifically aimed at gender because I don’t really want to see endless posts about how my entire gender is the devil while I’m mindlessly scrolling at my boring job.
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u/theipaper May 16 '25
The release of Netflix’s drama Adolescence sparked a surge in misogynistic, racist and anti-semitic activity on the world’s biggest incel forum, new research has found.
The hugely popular show followed the fictional case of a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a girl from his class. It delved into the influence of toxic material online, specifically the misogynistic incel movement.
Analysis from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) reveals the programme prompted a burst of activity on the main online meeting spot for self-described incels – who are often young, heterosexual men who despise women.
Imran Ahmed, chief executive of CCDH said that although Adolescence is “fundamentally a great and incredibly compelling show” he warned that it’s important to look at how online spaces responded to the drama.
He said: “I don’t think the programme makers thought this but people say we should show this in every school. What this [online response] shows is that it’s not going to have the impact that’s desired on the people that are most in need of help.Those [incels] have reacted aggressively and angrily to it.”
“People on the forum reacted angrily to Adolescence and rejected both its findings and any sense of responsibility for the violence [of] incel communities.”
Better investment is needed, he added, to help teachers tackle the growing problem of misogyny among school children: “What we now need is a nationwide education programme for parents. We need both research and action urgently to deal with a growing crisis, and it’s one that teachers have been warning about for years.”
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u/Stoltlallare May 16 '25
Do you really need research to conclude that it will cause an increase in incel language as a reaction to incel series
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u/freakydeku May 16 '25
this is an interesting take from CEO but i personally don’t think the message of Adolescence is intended for full blown incels.
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May 17 '25
I haven’t watched this show yet, but from what I’ve gathered I don’t understand why it would spark a surge in racism or antisemitism lol.
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u/TimidPanther May 16 '25
Why are women known as "FOIDs" to them?
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u/__echo_ May 16 '25
The full form of FOID = Female + android
Basically , women are not full rounded humans but are androids or humanoids who do not feel emotion and hence can be treated as such.
It is just a way to dehumanize women into sub humans or non humans even.
They also use other lingos: toilet , cum dumpster, landwhale etc. It is sad.
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u/OfflersSausages May 16 '25
We are too emotional and also do not feel emotion!
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u/lynn122 May 16 '25
I was just about to comment this! No emotions according to incels. Too emotional to hold jobs in power to the others. Can’t really win here.
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u/pumpkin_fire May 16 '25
FOID = Female + android
Not saying it's supposed to make sense, but "android" literally means "man-like".
They're already a word that means a female humanoid - gynoid.
My god these people are dumb!
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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot May 16 '25
The term incel itself, was coined by a lesbian woman.
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u/bluegreenlava May 20 '25
I actually still remember the sub incel being about being lonely. I also still remember when it started out that women got pushed out of the sub because "females can get sex if they want. They're only choosy". Never did I thought this subreddit will be becoming that dangerous...
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u/sleeveofsaltines May 16 '25
Crazy because as a married lesbian, men literally do not exist to me. I live a life where men are completely decentered and lemme tell ya it’s fucking great
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u/WampaCat May 16 '25
What line of work are you in? I feel like that shit is still inescapable in a lot of professional settings
Edited autocorrect
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u/freakydeku May 16 '25
nursing’s a good option to avoid men, especially women centered specialties lol
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u/agirldonkey May 16 '25
Same for me, married lesbian working in real estate as a licensed assistant. I work from home so I see a few men if I go into the brokerage (less than monthly) and when I visit my dad at his memory care once a week…if all men disappeared, Rapture-style, I would not notice for up to 6 days
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Jun 13 '25
And this fellow men is why you can give up on western society, the fuck I'm going to war for this femnazi society
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u/Less_Party May 16 '25
It's short for 'femoid'. I don't think there's a ton of logic to it beyond that term though, it's just an even more dehumanizing way to say 'female'.
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u/TimidPanther May 16 '25
Oh that makes sense. Given who is using the term, it makes a lot of sense.
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u/snotparty May 16 '25
All their terminology is part of the cult.
Cults use special language to describe people and other things, it helps distance them from outsiders and strengthens the "us vs them" mindset. (Manosohere...incels, it is a cult.)
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u/ForbiddenOasis May 16 '25
It’s a shortening of another derogatory term that incels use: femoid (female + humanoid). It’s extremely childish and hateful
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u/somethingbrite May 16 '25
"The release of Netflix’s drama Adolescence sparked a surge in misogynistic, racist and anti-semitic activity on the world’s biggest incel forum"
Well colour me surprised that "misogynistic, racist, anti-semites" struggle with getting laid.
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u/badboyfriend111 May 16 '25
Hearing that these idiots hate the show only makes me want to watch it.
Why is it the biggest snowflakes in America also happen to be MAGA?
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u/Levofloxacine May 16 '25
Interesting you’re making this a solely american problem when this show isnt even american
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u/MathematicianEven149 May 17 '25
What’s the Margret Atwood quote? “Men are afraid women will laugh at them and women are afraid men will kill them.” Is that it? Asking for a friend..
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u/Fair_Blood3176 May 16 '25
How does anyone come across these "incel" sites? Sometimes I think they're made up or if not I ask, how does anyone know who exactly is behind the keyboard on these sites or chatrooms? It could be bots or state actors.
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u/ohmarlasinger May 16 '25
Don’t be alarmed but you are currently on one of those incel sites. Just be a woman and say something that hurts a male’s feelings on this site. The incels will come scurrying outta the woodwork to wax on that it’s not all males while actively being one of the reasons women have to use gun safety practices when handling males & assume all of them are loaded & ready to fire until fully proven otherwise by our own eyes & experience with said possibly loaded weapon.
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u/StarShineHllo May 18 '25
It wasn't a good show. It is trite and almost silly at times. Main kid was a terrible actor. It's a high budget, unaffecting, after school special level work.
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u/Accomplished_Sock435 May 20 '25
The show was so compassionate toward Jamie and even victim blamed Katie a bit by saying she was a bully. Incels are so pathetic. This show was kinder to them than they deserved.
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u/Fragrant_Peanut_9661 May 16 '25
I turned it off after the first episode. Did NOT engage me at all.
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u/theringsofthedragon May 16 '25
The show is fairly pro-incel I thought.
We're made to feel sorry for the boy, he's just 14 and you feel bad that he says he's convinced he's ugly and not good at anything.
I don't see that type of empathy for girls who think they are ugly and not good enough. The girls are portrayed as "fine" like "oh but she's good at school" or "she has boys who would go out with her". It's all about the male loneliness epidemic and nobody talks about the female loneliness epidemic.
And while the boy is portrayed as the one who took it too far and did the irreparable, they still portray it like the girl was bullying him too. It's even possible that she was the one bullying him completely one-sided until he got his revenge.
There's this myth that girls do more psychological bullying but it's really just a myth.
Anyway that show seems to portray boys as victims.
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u/ShadowSniper69 May 17 '25
I mean yeah no one wants to get bullied, and you also shouldn't murder people.
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May 16 '25
Yeah I don’t like this article. No idea what this show is and they won’t name the “incel forum”. Sus.
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u/skanderkeg May 16 '25
Ngl I don’t think we should normalise calling 13 year olds incels. Kind of a bit off putting tbh. Barely any of the girls I knew at school or the boys had lost their virginity until ages 15,16,17,18…
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u/DJSimmer305 May 16 '25
While that is true, I think the term has evolved to more generally refer to any boy who feels wronged by women due to their inability to engage with them.
Boys at 13 may mostly be virgins (by choice or otherwise) but they are still interested in girls at that age and want to win their affections/engage in relationships.
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u/gotee May 16 '25
I agree. It makes it easier to unfairly judge children for the world that has been created for them since no one else wants to take the blame.
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u/Illustrious-Ant8888 May 16 '25
The word incel gets thrown around and misused so much that it has lost meaning. It's one of those words that everyone should stop using as it doesn't do any good.
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May 16 '25
I think red pill incapsulates the scene better
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u/notanewbiedude May 17 '25
This.
Incel is a stage in life. Red pill is an ideology. Most incels aren't radicalized and half of them are probably women.
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u/Disastrous-Dress521 May 21 '25
Red pill and incels are very different thing (to the point where the groups hate each other quite significantly)
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May 21 '25
Maybe so but they are informed by very similar assumptions.
If you want to force the distinction, they could be grouped as sub categories of some umbrella scene that doesn’t have a name yet. Both are different interpretations and answers to the same base assumptions
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u/gdognoseit May 16 '25
It’s become to mean misogynistic women haters instead of the original involuntary celibacy.
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u/Frank3634 May 19 '25
I sure thought in episode 2 the cops were going to look further into that one kid.
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u/The_ivy_fund May 20 '25
What was his dad supposed to do? Why was he not an adequate role model? He clearly loved and respected his wife which is a whole lot more than most. He wasn’t afraid to say he loved his kid. The show portrayed the dad in a very positive light. In no way is it pointing blame at him for Jamie falling down the wrong path.
I’d argue the show was telling us the secret world of teenagers and toxic social media can lead astray even the most ordinary kid with solid parents.
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u/AntiqueAd7851 May 24 '25
For the record: every teenage male I ever knew acted like they had a "genetic predisposition towards violence" while they were developing but none of them murdered or assaulted girls.
Being a violent, incel, loser, isn't something that happens to young men, this is a choice they are making because they believe they shouldn't have to earn respect or companionship. They think women owe them something that they are being denied.
It's disgusting.
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May 30 '25
"Television shows have no effect on people's perception of reality we need to just let fly and everyone will make their own totally responsible choices."
-Sincerly, big billionaire entertainment
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u/Cahbr04 May 16 '25
Funny because I thought the show was much kinder and compassionate to Jamie than I would have expected from the way people were talking about it