A safety brief analyzing security concerns at one military installation offered up an eccentric example of a potential hazard when instructors warned airmen in attendance of the growing threat of incels, or involuntary celibates.
The online-based community of introverted, sexless individuals that may have started decades ago as an innocuous attempt at achieving a sense of belonging has, in recent years, become a label for a more aggressive sect of repugnant men who cast the entirety of the blame for their coitus-free existence onto women.
This scorn has manifested in the form of heinous misogyny shared over online message boards, and in a handful of cases, escalated into deadly violence.
In the wake of learning Army veteran and Dallas courthouse shooter, Brian Isaack Clyde, was an active participant in the incel subculture, at least one base — Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews — is now taking measures to educate service members on the warning signs — including the use of a popular meme Clyde shared on his social media — of potential violence carried out by the incel community.
In the time leading up to the shooting, Clyde shared a version of the incel meme known as “Virgin vs. Chad,” in which the characteristics of an incel man are stacked up against his antithesis. In Clyde’s case, the meme contrasted the ways in which the Virgin and Chad would carry out a mass shooting, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The “Becky vs. Stacy” iteration that was used during the brief at Andrews, one that was shared Tuesday to the popular Facebook page, Air Force amn/nco/scno, depicts two types of women flanked by a series of debasing comments incels use to characterize those who refuse to enter romantic relationships with them.
Increased discussion in “extremist connections and attacks” from incels is cited in the brief along with other incel character traits, such as maintaining the belief that they are “owed attention from ‘Beckys.’”
“The content of this briefing was based upon law enforcement as well as public sources and was used to inform both military commanders and law enforcement personnel about a very real threat to military members and civilians,” Master Sgt. Jake Richmond, spokesman for Joint Base Andrews, told Military Times.
“The briefing aims to provide those audiences with the necessary tools to identify and prevent threats.”