Van attack spotlights ‘incel’ sites

TORONTO — The van rampage in Toronto is training attention on an online world of sexual loneliness, rage and misogyny after the suspect invoked an uprising by “involuntary celibates” and gave a shoutout to a California killer who seethed at women for rejecting him.

The world of self-described “incels,” where sexual frustrations boil over into talk of violent revenge against women, has become a virtual home for some socially isolated men like the 25-year-old computer science student charged in Monday’s carnage on Toronto’s busiest thoroughfare.

Minutes before plowing a rented van into a crowd of mostly women, killing 10 people and injuring 14, suspect Alek Minassian posted a Facebook message that seemed to offer one of the few clues to what was on his mind. “The Incel Rebellion has already begun!” it read.

Police confirmed Minassian posted the message but have declined to discuss a motive for the attack as they continue investigating. But the post has revived concerns about the anti-woman vitriol embraced by California mass killer Elliot Rodger and invoked by Minassian in his post.

The incel community is “one of the most violent areas of the internet,” said Heidi Beirich, who tracks hate groups for the Southern Poverty Law Center. “It may seem to some people that this is kind of a group of pathetic, victimized white males who just are lonely. It’s not. It’s ugly.”

Yet some incel sites insist they don’t condone violence or misogyny. And Judith Taylor, a University of Toronto professor who focuses on social movements, notes that some participants in incel discussions simply feel forsaken.”

Until Monday, Minassian had a life that never attracted authorities’ attention.

Living with his family in suburban Toronto, he studied at nearby Seneca College, where some fellow students told news media he had a way with computers. He joined the military last year but asked to leave recruit training after 16 days, according to Canada’s Department of National Defence.

As a teen, he had an awkward personality, those who knew him then said.

“He was known to meow like a cat and try to bite people,” though he never was violent, wrote Alexander Alexandrovitch, who said in a Facebook post that he went to high school with Minassian.

Others said Minassian had struggled socially, especially with women.

He’d intone, “I’m afraid of girls,” former high school classmate, Ari Blaff, told news media.