5
"Incel" Was Coined By A Woman, And Wasn't Meant As A Bad Thing
"Incel" is short for "involuntarily celibate," and is most often used by men who can't get the sex which they believe they're entitled to simply for having a dingus. They feel like women are evil for refusing to sleep with them and daring to have their own feelings and opinions. Inceldom is characterized by extreme misogyny, misanthropy, self-loathing, racism, and thinking Joker is a documentary.
And that's incredible, because the label comes from a Canadian woman who was trying to help herself and the lonely people of the internet through kindness, education, and community.
Her name is Alana, and in 1997, she started a website called the Involuntary Celibacy Project, initially shortened to "invcel." (That "v" awkwardly stuck in the middle eventually fell off.) It was meant to be a friendly place where late bloomers like herself could talk and joke about their struggles, and perhaps even make connections. The idea of a friendly internet forum may seem foreign to us in 2019, but in 1997, it wasn't that rare. Believe it or not, the group inspired a total of zero mass shootings during this time.
But Alana notes that even in those early days, when the community was mostly friendly and supportive, there were angry men who blamed women for all their problems. When she left in 2000, perhaps feeling like this whole internet thing was on its last legs, she was confident that the group would grow in a positive direction. It didn't go that way. At some point the misogynists took over, and now, instead of good people fighting against the stereotype of the pathetic virgin, we have a bunch of men who call Elliot Rodger "St. Elliot." Oh well, maybe the next civilization will do better.
4
"Snowflake" Was An Insult Against Anti-Abolitionists During The Civil War
People who use "snowflake" as an insult often believe society is getting too damned sensitive, that comedians should be able to joke about anything without consequence, and that football players should be sent to Guantanamo if they so much as twitch during the National Anthem. When the word broke through to the mainstream in the mid-2010s, Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk took credit for conceiving the phrase, although it was actually birthed through Brad Pitt's lips (you're welcome for the mental image):