Robert

Pre-Elliot Rodger, the only people who were aware of the incel subculture were like really incredibly online weirdos.

And this was even to the point like there were not in 2014 nearly as many people who were like extremism researchers in digital communities.

I was kind of tangentially aware of POAHate.com because I was interested in like the pickup artist community and those weirdos.

So I was aware that there were like people who were radical and very like misogynistic and angry that pickup artistry hadn't worked for them.

But I don't think – I think probably 99% of people learned about incels for the first time because of Elliot Rodgers like spree killing, right?

Yeah.

And you got to remember, too, that's earlier in 2014.

Gamergate doesn't start until August of 2014.

So for the public, even the idea that there were huge organized groups of men online who just wanted to harass and do violence to random women they don't know, that was not common knowledge.

If you were a woman who made stuff for the Internet, you were aware of aspects of this, certainly.

But a lot of this becomes really clear to people for the first time because Elliot Rodger doesn't just kill a bunch of people.

But before he does it, he posts his 141-page manifesto on puahate.com immediately before he starts his rampage.

And –

I've had to read this thing several times over the years.

I mean, I've reported on aspects of it a bunch and I hate having to quote from it, but it is integral.

It's like a foundational document for the incel subculture.

And the whole thing is written.

If I had to describe like the tone of the prose, Elliot Rodger wrote like the villain from a Saturday morning cartoon or a really badly written anime.

Here's the opening lines of his manifesto.

humanity.