Almost three hours into his interrogation by Toronto police, the man who purposely crashed a van into pedestrians along a crowded Toronto sidewalk explained his motive, his dogma. Likely meant as a solemn homily, the words instead push the detective to laugh.

The 10 dead and 16 injured left along Yonge Street in 2018 were causalities of an uprising, the driver said, a beta uprising, if you will, against the Chads and the Stacys.

From his interrogator, Det. Rob Thomas, with the behavioural assessment section no less, a snicker slipped.

Who can blame him? Could there be a more absurd manifesto for mass murder?

Thomas forged ahead with a remarkable session over four and a half hours in which Alek Minassian revealed his online radicalization in the emerging incel ideology (short for involuntary celibate) that has become a woman-hating subculture.

Responses to incel ideology are evolving as violence sparked by its dogma continues, and an online community of fellow believers cheer each attack. While its ideas can evoke laughter of disbelief, its impact is deadly serious.

Last week was a milestone in how Canada responds to incel violence in two significant ways not only showing the hammer but extending a hand.

Incel violence was deemed an act of terrorism in Canada for the first time, when charges against a teenager accused of a deadly machete attack against female workers at a Toronto erotic massage parlour were upgraded to include murder terrorist activity.

At the same time, it is being addressed more urgently as a mental health and social issue needing specific intervention.

While police chase danger from incels as part of an ideological group, mental health professionals, social workers and anti-extremist activists focus on the individuals, the self-described lonely and unloved men behind incel culture and its violent ideas.

Efforts moved forward this week to look into the mindset of incels to short circuit a spiral from loneliness to loathing to violence.

There are certain players involved with the problem of violent extremism and terrorism and they have specific roles, said John McCoy, executive director of the Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV).

Youve got an intelligence-gathering agency and law enforcement agencies, but there is a gap and that gap is related to prevention.

While counter violent extremism is usually associated with Islamic jihadists and white supremacists, several organizations are now extending outreach to incels.

Counter violent extremist programming is about trying to prevent the escalation of those who are engaged with some kind of ideology that promotes violence from deciding to get up one day and do something about it like Minassian getting into a van, said McCoy.

McCoys Edmonton-based organization released a report this week to guide mental health practitioners, doctors, social workers, mentors and youth workers in dealing with incels.

Individuals who associate with the incel movement appear more likely than the general population to self-report anxiety, depression and other mood disorders, the OPV says.

Incels span a range of behaviour and belief.

While the violent fringe of the incel movement is being recognized as a threat, it is important to acknowledge the majority of incels are not violent and may be at a higher risk of self-harm than the general population, the report says.

Incels, at least online, often revel in an indifference to living; suicide seems an ever-present possibility with frequent references to the rope call or suifuel, which is something that fuels a desire to die.

One large incel forum conducts periodic polls of its members. In a poll this past March, 88 per cent said they were unhappy; 74 per cent had long-lasting anxiety or emotional distress; 77 per cent were not optimistic about the future and 71.5 per cent said they were on the autism spectrum. Its poll last year found 67.5 per cent of members had seriously considered suicide.

It is important to acknowledge the majority of incels are not violent

Moonshot CVE, a British deradicalization company that works with federal governments, is also turning attention to incels in Canada.

Public Safety Canada recently funded Moonshot for a detailed incel study. This week, it released its first report, designed to help frontline practitioners and social services interrupt incel mobilization to violence.

The Toronto van attack in 2018, and the more recent attack in February 2020, have put their capacity for real-world harm beyond doubt, the Moonshot report says.

It is also clear to anyone who spends time in these communities where both suicidal ideation and suicide itself are rampant incels also pose a significant threat to themselves. The first step in understanding how to engage with these at-risk men is to understand how they communicate and share their worldview.

To that end, Moonshots guide to incel symbols and terminology seeks to break down the jargon to allow informed outside engagement.

In an odd way, Minassian did a lot of that work.

During his four-hour interrogation he spoke in granular detail about the destructive incel worldview, such as dividing humanity into categories of betas, Stacys, Chads and normies.

(A beta is an incel, rejected by society and women because of unfair and unchangeable genetics; a Stacy is the archetype for attractive women who shun betas; a Chad is the name for sexually successful men who attract women despite being seen as dumb; normies are the masses with average looks.)

It sounds childish and comical but it is a meme-friendly way of sorting and explaining incel experiences.

Micah Clark, a Moonshot principal currently based in Ottawa, said incels are unique in the world of violent extremists.

Theyre the ones who adopted the concept of incel, theyve taken that on as their own identity, rather than being called something by other people, he said.

It is a community that has a lot of mental health and social heath needs A lot of these folks are at a very high risk of harming themselves and no one else.

While most incels really have a lot of disdain for themselves and a lot of self-hatred, they are also really into themselves

Then you suddenly have the stark terror of violent attacks and that can never be ignored.

Its a trickier movement to work with, said Clark. Its trickier to understand. They are much more self-aware around who they are and much more self-aware of the fact they are being observed.

They are quite fascinated with themselves. While most incels really have a lot of disdain for themselves and a lot of self-hatred, they are also really into themselves.

Clark said Moonshot has worked with many hardened, tough-nosed counter-terrorist types and former extremists.

And incels weird them out to a degree and in a way that no other movement does. Part of whats so disturbing is its so relatable loneliness and sadness and lack of connection. Its a human experience a lot of us feel and they have felt it in a way that is so far beyond what a lot of us have.

You can recognize that empathy without having to have any sympathy. You can recognize the human experience that led them to this place without having any acceptability around the misogyny, and rejecting it fundamentally.

These reports both highlight one obstacle in reaching incels: despite their self-declared needs, they tend to reject assistance.

The reaction of incels when non-incels engage in their forums is often hostile, rejecting any input from normies.

Accepting therapy and psychological intervention means rejecting incel dogma, Moonshots report says. Under incel dogma, physical appearance is all women care about in sex partners, so pro-social intervention is useless, incels counter.

As one incel post says: therapy dont fix your face.

Overcoming these barriers and making support more accessible will be key to preventing further acts of violence, says the OPV report.

Which means overcoming the irony of a community built on loneliness being hostile to outsiders.

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Inside the minds of incels: Experts seek to short-circuit the spiral from loneliness to loathing to violence - National Post

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