So you end up with a chain, which starts in the most extreme online forums: men like Matt Forney explicitly advocate beating women, and incels discuss keeping women as sex slaves. Then there are the direct leaders of those communities: men like Valizadeh, who have egged their followers on, and Elam with his “Bash a violent bitch month.” Next, men like Yiannopoulos, who sing their hearts out while Nazi salutes rain down around them but maintain a wide-eyed innocence if they get caught; who repeat some of the most outrageous ideals of the online mob but always claim they’re “just being ironic”;
...more
