LogFAQs > #928706823

sevihaimerej posted...

EvenSpoonier posted...

The term isn't used nearly as freely as the self-identified incels like to paint it as. If you don't call yourself an incel, nobody else will either.

That's bullshit, when the word is used to describe a movie about one of the most iconic villains in history for no conceivable reason I think it's safe to say it has been overused to the point of meaninglessness

The incels do seem to have successfully co-opted that movie, yes. More's the pity, because I agree that Phoenix's Joker is not an incel. He holds down a job, he has a serious diagnosed mental illness, he takes care of himself (and someone other than himself, no less): these are not things that incels do.

But the Joker is the kind of person that most incels think they are, and I think that is why they were so keen on stealing the movie. It's not surprising: their name is stolen, so why shouldn't their media be? The incels tell themselves their celibacy is involuntary, to forget that they chose the things that make them creepy. They tell themselves they can't do anything about their situation, to forget that they just don't want to do anything about it. They tell themselves they're mentally ill to forget that they're just jerks, and they tell themselves they don't need doctors to forget that the doctors would find nothing seriously wrong.

But people forget this. They're so used to trusting people's definitions of themselves that they don't know how to handle it when a group's whole identity is based around lying to themselves. So they think Joker is an incel movie because the incels tell themselves it is, even though there is nothing incel about it.
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"Playing a game for its graphics is like watching pornography for the story." - Kadiroth