The suspect was drawing praise from the twisted "involuntary celibate" movement that exists in Reddit and 4Chan groups.
It's hard to believe, but the man who mowed down numerous pedestrians in Toronto earlier this week is being hailed a hero in the dark corners of the internet.
Alek Minassian, 25, called himself an “incel,” or involuntary celibate. It is believed he carried out the attack in an act of revenge on women for rejecting him.
Incredibly, there are an estimated 40,000 other "incel" men who communicate on forums found on Reddit and 4Chan.
"Alek Minassian gave his life for our future," reads one sickening post on Reddit.
"We're mainstream now," was another comment.
"There will only be more and more... and that fact fills me with joy," said another man.
Dr. Judith Taylor is an expert on the so-called "incel" phenomenon.
"It’s a larger cry for help — 'help I’ve been forsaken, no one is paying attention to me. I won’t get notoriety for anything else so I may as well kill other people and kill myself,'" Taylor said of the men who consider themselves "incel."
Before launching his killing spree in Toronto Monday afternoon, Minassian posted a disturbing warning: "We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys," or the names meant to symbolize guys who get all the girls and the women who go for them.
Minassian admired Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old misfit who killed six people at The University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014 before turning the gun on himself.
Prior to his massacre, Rodger recorded a disturbing rant where he said: "I will slaughter every single spoiled stuck up blonde slut."
Another admirer of Rodger was Nikolas Cruz, the social misfit who carried out the Parkland school massacre on Valentine's Day.
Before Rodger became the poster boy for the incel world, there was George Sodini, who shot and killed three women in a Pittsburgh health club in 2009.
Dr. Taylor says violence by incels is happening at an alarming rate.
“It pretty much happens about every six months. It is habitual. At what point do we start to say, 'This isn’t a random act, this is a habitual crisis,'" she warned.
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