[bitL]

Incel is a generic term for involuntarily celibate people. Volcel is for voluntarily celibate people. Both considered weird and unnatural by majority. Don't conflate it with some organized group that reused the name, that would be a pretty big scientific mistake, likely politically motivated.

[mfoy_]

I'd argue that "incel" is a specialized label, just like "antifa".

If you identify as an "incel", that's a more loaded point than just saying you are "involuntarily celibate". Similarly, you could say you are "against fascists" without implying all the connotations that go along with saying you are an "antifa".

[bitL]

Could be now getting more specialized/loaded, as the non-radicalized majority that could have been labeled by 'incel' label would probably like to distance from it (in a 'leave me alone!' way) - I guess Urban dictionary will have a term for them soon. Still, in the past few years 'incel' was just 'involuntary celibate' and grumpy about that.

[CodeMage]

That ship has sailed the moment they decided to name themselves "incel", as opposed to "involuntarily celibate". Orwell explained the effect nicely in "The Principles of Newspeak":

It was perceived that in thus abbreviating a name one narrowed and subtly altered its meaning, by cutting out most of the associations that would otherwise cling to it. The words Communist International, for instance, call up a composite picture of universal human brotherhood, red flags, barricades, Karl Marx, and the Paris Commune. The word Comintern, on the other hand, suggests merely a tightly-knit organization and a well-defined body of doctrine. It refers to something almost as easily recognized, and as limited in purpose, as a chair or a table. Comintern is a word that can be uttered almost without taking thought, whereas Communist International is a phrase over which one is obliged to linger at least momentarily.

[bitL]

I think the main difference between that Newspeak example and them is that the Newspeak version has some intentional formulation in order to be simpler to pronounce whereas the 'incel' term seems like something that a 4channer would conjure while on a creative night filled with desolation, and then just picked up organically by those that would love to use it for shaming purposes first, maybe later in a self-parodizing way by the people it originally pertained to? Then somebody takes it way too seriously and the rest of us are left facepalming, wondering what has just happened?

[CodeMage]

The Newspeak, as a fictional language and thought exercise, takes a phenomenon that occurs naturally in real life and proposes a way to exploit it. The "incel" label is just a natural, real-life occurrence of the phenomenon Orwell noticed and described.

[nqzero]

"the moment they decided to name themselves"

this isn't really a choice these days. the modern mind doesn't have time or attention for something as unwieldy as "involuntarily celibate". even comintern seems a bit long. we live in a world dominated by memes

the only other likely moniker this group could have ended up with today is "involuntarily fucking celibate"

[tnzn]

Yeah, a political debate shouldn't be politically motivated. Boy those positivists.

[dsschnau]

I will mistake the terms because they're both made up.

[bitL]

Like most of terms we use ;-)