At this point the word incel has basically multiple meanings. It can be a legitimate state of being (in fact the person who came up with the term was a woman) or a knee-jerk insult. It's basically just like the term tankie.

This whole struggle session has made it crystal clear that the west is pretty much guaranteed to descend into fascism. A lot of people basically seem to knee-jerk dismiss concerns people have about being in the friend zone, and without a legitimate leftist response to this, tons of alienated young men are going to find their way to reactionary figures and basically become the foot soldiers of fascism. There needs to be more concrete help for these alienated guys other than saying "it's all capitalism's fault that you feel that way" or saying "oh you even mention the friend zone? tHaT mEaNs YoU'rE aN iNcEl!" I mean yes capitalism has really alienated us and commodified dating but that's not gonna help the lonely guy who gets rejected all the time other than in an intellectual way. Also telling him that "you should just be content with life" is also not helpful either. I mean yeah you can be all Buddhist about it but would you say that to other disenfranchised people as well? "Hey sorry about the discrimination but it's better to just be content with life." Is this what an AES nation would do? Sounds like some idealist western shit rather than a principled materialist approach that takes into account the realities on the ground. The USSR industrialized, developed, and got rid of cyclical famines. China lifted millions out of poverty. They didn't just say "it's capitalism's fault that you're homeless" and then just leave it at that, they actually did concrete stuff. There needs to be concrete action done to deal with this issue other than mockery/dunking or simple platitudes like "hey just be yourself and be content."

Anyways, like I've said before, the west is doomed.

I do have a friend who does only date assholes, it's very sad and she says so. They have done things like break her arm, break into her house after they'd broken up and steal all of her knives etc. It's actually a repeated pattern in her relationships that strikes me as pathological.

Yeah that's the thing, you don't have to give into the incel mindset to notice this kind pattern.

That said, the incel/"nice guy" vibe is defining asshole as "someone who is more confident than me".

Yeah, although I do think that the "asshole" and the "nice guy" are two sides of the same coin (both toxic but in different ways; one more overt and the other covert). Actual confident/good guys often get mistaken as "assholes" simply cuz they have the confidence, like you said.

Did you secretly like them or did you admit it? And did they secretly know or only know after you admitted it?

A squish is a persistent feeling of platonic attraction to someone. It's the platonic equivalent of a crush. When I'm around someone I have a squish on, I'm excited and happy to be near them. With time and familiarity, these feelings usually fade and get replaced with platonic love, which is the foundation of a good friendship.

Ah I see

Introjection is when a system creates a member with an identity based on an external source. These sources are usually fictional characters, which results in system members called fictives, but there are also factives, which are members based on a factional source.

Ok I'm completely lost here. I don't know what a system is. And I take it factional source is a real source, as opposed to fiction?

You can logically know something, and behave accordingly, even if your feelings are different.

I think that may sound good in theory, but in practice emotions really fuck with us. So if one is trying to assess how to best proceed, there needs to be an honest accounting on the strength and frequency of these feelings. It's almost like a calculated risk to be honest. You need to really know yourself. If you think you can do it then yeah good for you, but I think in our current environment it might just create more danger to the women because they may not know who is honestly trying to be friends and who is "just trying to get in" under the guise of friendship. Maybe this analogy isn't that good, but it's almost like job hunting, if you get rejected I suppose you can try to "follow up and keep trying" but it's better to move on (and I fully acknowledge that dating isn't transactional like a job but it still kind of is a "market" for lack of a better term).

Were you initially attracted romantically from the beginning?

You don't speak for everyone.

I know, and I never claimed to. That's great that it worked out for you, and I'm happy.

it's completely disingenuous to remain "friends" with someone after you've been friendzoned

Retort: no it's not. Try being a normal person.

Did you read the rest of the sentence, or the paragraph? Or are you just knee-jerk reacting to a part of what I said? Honest question.

I mean with Zizek's pro Ukraine shit and other weird takes, are they really that different?

The sad part is that so many aging millennials, even some on hexbear, are always reminiscing about that shitty era.

Socialism has all the power on the State with no or little room for individuals themselves to make their businesses and companies, companies that'll thrive will be friends with the king and create a monopoly in that country.

China has tons of small and big businesses and it's still socialist.