Objection, your honor, this is a leading question and my client is pleading the 5th.
________
I learned what an incel was this year, as did many people. If you’re unfamiliar, it stands for “involuntary celibate;” a man that wants to have sex, but can’t because no woman will sleep with him.
Here’s the problem with that description: I was in incel before being an incel was a thing. I was a teenager, which is when pretty much everyone is an incel.
Looking back on that period of my life, I easily recognize that my lack of female companionship was all my fault.
I was a moody, anti-social teenager with a chip on my shoulder, wore black Metallica shirts and torn jeans, and I had a mullet.
A mullet.
That’s never a good idea, especially not when trying to attract the fairer sex.
Then I got to college, and something changed: me.
I (eventually) got rid of the mullet, dialed back (for the most part) the anger, dressed better, and, and this is the big one, actually started talking to women.
It turns out, I was an “incel” by choice. My decisions were voluntary, not thrust upon me by the outside world.
That’s a huge distinction, and some people never make it.
Many people don’t see how their actions affect how the world at large perceives them, which means they never grow or develop as human beings. Which, in turn, is the difference in humanity in general: some people lash out and blame others for their lot in life, some people look inward and make changes.