The Ars Technica article “Why Incels Take the ‘Blackpill’—and Why We Should Care” offers a well-meaning psychological analysis of despair among young men in online incel communities. However, its focus on personal mental health and loneliness risks obscuring the far more pressing systemic issue: the rise of the alt-right manosphere, which has become a recruitment engine for extremist ideology cloaked in the language of sexual frustration.

A growing body of research suggests that the real danger is not merely the depressive fatalism of the “blackpill” ideology but the broader pipeline that converts vulnerable young men into reactionary culture warriors. According to a 2023 report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, online platforms such as YouTube, Reddit, and Discord have become breeding grounds for radicalization, with young men being funneled from self-help and fitness content to anti-feminist, racist, and anti-democratic narratives in a matter of weeks or even days.

In fact, Pew Research data from 2023 shows that among males aged 18–29, nearly one in four reports feeling “sympathetic” to alt-right or nationalist positions, especially those that frame modern gender roles as a form of “male dispossession.” Additionally, a 2022 study from the Southern Poverty Law Center highlighted that misogyny was the gateway ideology for the majority of young men who later engaged with more overtly fascist or white supremacist movements.

What the Ars Technica article underplays is how essential this network of aggrieved young men is to the political power structures of the contemporary right. Reactionary media figures, evangelical influencers, and GOP politicians have all learned to exploit male resentment, framing every discussion about equality, inclusion, or feminism as a threat to male identity. This is not incidental—it is instrumental. The right thrives on this rage. Conservative evangelical Christianity in particular offers a sanitized, “God-ordained” version of patriarchy that reinforces the very structures that drive young men to despair while giving them a sacred mandate to enforce it.

The solution is not merely encouraging therapy or individual coping strategies. The real path forward involves dismantling the alt-right pipeline itself. That means building large-scale, publicly funded programs aimed at education, job readiness, and healthy masculinity. It means re-integrating isolated young men into real communities—preferably those that reject hate and domination as a model for identity. It means deplatforming the worst offenders and investing in alternatives that promote solidarity over grievance.

But let us be honest: these reforms are unlikely to occur in the current political climate. The right has no incentive to help young men grow out of their hatred—because their rage is both a fundraising tool and a voting bloc. As long as resentment pays dividends, the alt-right will keep poisoning the well. And articles that frame the crisis in terms of individual despair rather than systemic radicalization may only help obscure the battlefield.

My community run station in Valdese, NC is run my fascist and MAGA supporter. I have not worked in radio in like 35 years and thought I would hype a midnight 80s goth show but when I found out they are MAGA i just gave up the idea.

He can be over it all he wants and the weather is not going to give one single shit.

The stupidest line is cimima history is " Life in like a box of chocolates" and delivered with that over exaggerated hillbilly drawl is infuriating. The character bumbles though everything and has no agency what so ever.

I have to agree. Pedro is nice and and he is a good actor but I feel he is not right for this. I get though, To Disney he is a known and by al accounts is easy to work with. I don’t feel they guy for Johnny either. I don’t know man. I am just tired of Marvel disappointing me. The last Thor movie was such a cluster fuck.

I have been burned so many times that I really want this to be good but I feel like I will be disappointed again.

You know I feel that way about most David Lynch stuff. It is weird for the sake of weird. It does seem to go anywhere for me. He always has a underlying mythology for his movies that must be dug into just to come away with a basic understanding of the plot.

I thought it was Fern Gully.

I could not make it 30 min into Forest Gump.

As an American who is a liberal gun owner I will agree with you.