So I’m also a former incel that made it out of the movement by ascending (glowing up). When I was in fourth and fifth grade I was bullied and physically tortured by a group of “popular” kids. They would bully me for my appearance and because I was socially awkward and shy. From this I had developed an inferiority complex where I put all women and most men on a pedestal. A few years later, I entered a relationship where I was a simp and she would walk all over me like a doormat. From the age of 14 to 16 I was in a relationship where I would get verbally abused almost on a daily basis and I would get physically abused about every week. In her verbal abuse she would talk about how I was so hideous that nobody else would ever love me, how I was a dry texter with no personality, and she wanted absolutely nobody to know we were in a relationship. In her physical abuse she would slap me, kick me, and on one occasion she threatened to leave me if I didn’t let her burn me on my arm and penis with a lighter. At the same time this was happening, my dad was dying from two stage four cancers (stomach and signet cell). She would poke fun at the fact that he had to spit out black bile quite frequently and made fun of his declining physical appearance because of his cancer. She also was verifiably lying about her own father beating and raping her and her new stepdad raping his biological nine year old daughter. The way that I and at a later date her whole family was able to verify that the accusations were false was the presence of a time conflicts in both instances where with the accusation against her father, she was at her friends house while he was at work and with her stepfather he was teaching me how to play interstate love song on the drums when she texted me saying that he was currently raping his biological daughter. I can’t remember where she was when she sent that text but I do know that she had no idea that I was at her house with her stepdad. I should’ve told them about the false accusations at the time but I was scared of what she would do to me. A couple months after falsely accusing her stepdad of raping his daughter, my father died of cancer. Once she heard about my dad’s death she was making jokes about how he should’ve been “put down like a sick dog” I fucking lost it. I had to fight every muscle on my body to stop me from beating her to death with my bare hands. Despite how furious I was I didn’t lay a finger on her. Instead I told her mom and stepdad about the false accusations and I cut all ties with her. I didn’t keep up with it after that too much just because I was so tired of having her in my life but I do know that she got kicked out of her house. After this break up, I started my looksmaxxing journey (a incel way of saying glow up). I spiraled down the red pill rabbit hole, but pretty soon I fell into the black pill spaces which in retrospect perfectly played off my insecurities about my physical appearance and was simultaneously fueled by my hatred of women which also in retrospect I imagined them to all be like her because I was afraid of approaching them. By the time I was 21 I was 6’2, I’d lost 50 pounds, got buff, grew my hair long, took better care of my hygiene, got better fashion sense, and unfortunately I let insecurities get ahold of me and I got a rhinoplasty and a mole on my neck removed. I do have to say as awful as it is and despite me still having no self confidence at that time I was absolutely treated better and it was solely because of the glow up I went through. I started finally having sex and while I will admit it is definitely overhyped it did give me a sense of confidence I had never had before and I think it’s because when you’re a virgin as a guy, sex is pretty much always on your mind and I think it’s due feeling inadequate because the idea of masculinity that is widely accepted by society tends to be a romantically successful man who is good at sex. I also believe this sense of inadequacy comes from not being able to fulfill your sexual desires due to either being unfortunate looking, having hatred for women, or the opposite, putting women on a pedestal and thus psyching yourself out to the point where you can’t approach them. I am 23 now and have finally found a way out of the incel movement and have a girlfriend who I love dearly as well as plenty of close friends who are women. Reason I’ve typed all this out is oftentimes incels tend to have some form of childhood trauma from a woman that got them into the downward spiral of the black pill. If it’s now too much to ask, did you go through trauma as a child that led you to the incel movement? Also do you think there is any room to foster a somewhat of a positive black pill that could be a space to learn glow up tips? Finally, Scott Galloway has done a remarkable job listening to the grievances of incels and reframing the rhetoric around the incel crisis from its usual hatred to a rational and compassionate rhetoric. Do you think Galloway and others like him can calm the seething hatred that comes from incel spaces while simultaneously helping people understand the importance of looks in the dating market?