On Saturday 26 April, in broad daylight, a man armed with a crossbow shot two young women on the famous ‘Otley run’ pub crawl in Headingley, Leeds, before killing himself.
In a manifesto posted on social media, he proclaims it was an act of “terrorism, revenge and misogynic rage”, fueled by his hatred for women and society as a whole.
He also claimed to have been exploring “far-right ideas” and even listed the numerous different weapons he intended to use.
‘Lone-wolf’ killings like this are becoming a more frequent phenomenon in Britain. In just the past few years there’s been the 2021 Plymouth shooting or, more recently, the Southport stabbings.
But this phenomenon isn’t just limited to ‘incels’ and ‘lone-wolves’ with far-right views and manifestos, as it is sometimes presented in the media. It is linked to the broader scourge of femicide.
One woman is murdered every three days in Britain alone. Just last year, a man named Kyle Clifford raped his former partner, and then murdered her, her sister, and mother. Many of these types of crimes have no clear ideological motivation.
Suggestions have come from the police for a ban on young people using social media, to prevent them from finding far-right and ‘incel’ material online. There have also been proposals from Labour and other parties to label misogyny a hate crime.
But why is it that such hateful material – which has long been prevalent online – is now taking root amongst a small layer of isolated, troubled people?
System in crisis
The capitalist system is in crisis across the world, and this has been particularly keenly felt in Britain where austerity has been unrelentingly carried out for over a decade.
NHS mental health services have been cut to the bone, community networks like youth groups, public spaces, and schools have been closed or stretched thin through staff shortages, outsourcing, and overwork.
Society is coming apart at the seams. There is a deep feeling of alienation that weighs down upon certain layers of people, particularly amongst the youth. It is easier than ever for mentally unwell individuals to ‘fall through the cracks’.
This provides fertile ground for reactionary online figures like Andrew Tate to gain the ear of a small section of people, telling them that their problems are the fault of women, minorities, and so on.
Social media companies, and their billionaire owners like Elon Musk, are more than happy to proliferate this material.
These giant monopolies are run for profit, and will happily turn a blind eye to most of the content that fuels their algorithms – including extreme and violent pornography.
But let’s not forget that social media is just one part of the problem. The mainstream media – the tabloids and TV companies – have also objectified and sexualised women for decades.
Meanwhile, the rich and powerful – Prince Andrew, Mohammed Al-Fayed, Jimmy Savile, and the rest – face next to no punishment for raping and abusing women. The rot of sexism and abuse starts at the top.
Regardless of the motivations of the individual killers, the conditions for them taking this path are prepared by this deep social crisis, and the odious ideas that emanate from this rotting system.
Crimes like these are the mark of a system that has far outlived its time, and offers the world nothing but agony and despair.
The fight against misogyny – as well as all the other reactionary rubbish – must be linked to the fight to overthrow the capitalist system, which is creating a world where events like this are becoming more and more common.
