How incel language infected the mainstream internet — and brought its toxicity with it
This excerpt from Adam Aleksic's Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language has been abridged for online publication. The book is out on July 15th.
The modern-day incel is entirely an invention of the twenty-first century. Before the internet, lonely men simply didn't have a way to gather and share ideas. That all began to change in 1997, when a Canadian student started a website called Alana's Involuntary Celibacy Project to connect with others over her shared lack of sex. As the name implies, the site wasn't a place for just straight men; rather, it was used by people of any gender or sexual orientation.
In subs ...