Masturbation abstinence practices have returned to the USA in the form of semen retention communities. Followers on one of these male, anti-masturbation forums, “NoFap,” on Reddit (denoted “r/NoFap”), have engaged in homicidal behaviors that appear to be linked to these sexual beliefs and practices. This study uses a systematic search on r/NoFap and two control forums (r/pornfree, and r/stopdrinking) to define a corpus of violent content. The study’s goals were to describe the nature of threats on r/NoFap and suggest whether the violence might be attributable to sexual deprivation or false beliefs that non-sexual targets caused their violent urges. Of the 421 violent posts identified from September 2011 to September 2022, r/NoFap contained the majority (94.3%). Violent threats on r/NoFap mostly targeted pornographers, women, scientists, specific persons, or any person (i.e. homicidal “rage”). Violent threats against r/NoFap’s own followers were growing most quickly. Violent posts were well-supported with upvotes by other followers in r/NoFap. These data are important because NoFap may represent a growing threat for real-world violence.

  • Deadend [he/him]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    652 years ago

    I’m completely not shocked that no-fap is just another right wing misogyny pool.

  • flan [they/them]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    272 years ago

    I get that they’re trying to keep the scope limited to documenting the amount of violent posts on r/NoFap and trying to come to some conclusion about whether or not this is due to sexual frustration, but they do drift into some speculation outside of the stated scope, “A second potential explanation for violent posts in NoFap is that the Reddit platform promotes violent posts by providing a high level of user anonymity with lax content moderation (Brown et al. Citation2018)”. So why don’t they speculate on the obvious - the control forums they chose have earnest self-help motivations but r/NoFap is rooted in a reactionary conspiracy theory?

  • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    802 years ago

    This shit’s so bleak, especially when you consider the r/chapo ban for “violent threats against slaveowners” or whatever.

    • RyanGosling [none/use name]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      512 years ago

      Lol. Reminds me of incel forums (I mean, same shit) that encourage their own users to kill themselves or become demoralized. Seems like a great ideology and community compare to the woke left

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      47
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      That “porn industry” spike during COVID, combined with a decrease in threats against a specific person, which is then followed by a massive increase in theatening other users of the nofap subreddit post 2020, is very telling. Quarantine broke them. Probably went back to watching porn during quarantine and got gulit tripped by fellow nofap crazies afterwards.

  • Tommasi [she/her, pup/pup's]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    952 years ago

    The nofap “movement” tell depressed, alienated guys that cutting out porn and masturbation is the key to turning their life around. This is how you can gain back your confidence and self-respect, become the person you want to be and stop being so alienated to everything around you.

    Since the real world doesn’t actually work like that, I’m not surprised it can lead to insane amounts of anger and frustration in some followers.

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    482 years ago

    Man men are NOT okay, and here I thought cutting out porn and getting fapping down to only a few times a week was a noble goal. Turns out it turns you homicidal.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      23
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      That’s generally a good idea, but the r/nofap people take it further, they say you shouldn’t masturbate at all. Then that gets paired with some misogyny and the promise that women will just throw themselves at you for doing this, and you end up with some very frustrated boys that should’ve knocked one out periodically to relieve their stress.

  • Phish [he/him, any]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    332 years ago

    Some fuckin’ world we got here.

    My guess is that those communities tend to attract the types of people who are more likely to commit a mass shooting, not so much that participating in abstinence from masturbation turns people into mass shooters. I’m sure it’s a very unhealthy group to socialize with though.

    I think there’s a level at which masturbating and looking at porn becomes unhealthy, but there has to be a better way to address that.

    • drhead [he/him]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      172 years ago

      I think there’s a level at which masturbating and looking at porn becomes unhealthy, but there has to be a better way to address that.

      Unfortunately, discourse on where that actually begins has been so thoroughly and completely poisoned by religious groups that are only using it as a recruiting opportunity, as well as nominally secular groups like this which are also effectively used as a recruiting ground for reactionaries, apparently to a degree more similar to incels than I previously thought. Arguably, the better move is to not give these groups an inch, because arguably most places in the world tend to have pretty reactionary views on sexuality and people are generally going to have a low estimate of when this becomes a problem, which then makes them prime targets for these groups. There are also studies finding that self-reporting for porn addiction is a much more reliable indicator of religiosity than it is an indicator for porn consumption, which should pretty plainly show that the actual effect of this rhetoric is that people who aren’t really doing anything unhealthy end up manipulated into a cycle of self-hatred and shame far more often than it actually helps someone who actually has a problem.

    • Tripbin [none/use name]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      52 years ago

      That’s when therapy should come in to play. If someone really thinks their masturbation is negatively impacting their lives then trying to fix it by joining reddit incels groups is obviously a bad idea. But trying out a couple sessions with a psych to see if they think it’s a problem and if so then they use real, evidence based, ways to help. Now convincing them to try therapy in the first place is obviously a huge problem itself

      • Kuori [she/her]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        22 years ago

        to say nothing of the fact that therapy is often unattainable (at least in the U.S.)

  • save_vs_death [they/them]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    312 years ago

    yeah cutting out porno and using your imagination once in a while to rub one out, probably good for you; also probably good to fap less if you feel like you’re doing it too much; what’s not helpful is being weird about it, and then expecting it to make you superman

    • GalaxyBrain [they/them]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      172 years ago

      Don’t turn everything into a Fandom in general. There doesn’t need to be a Not Masturbating Community. Of course that’s gonna get weird in some way. Making a message board for everything brings too many people who do one weird thing together and it has been a disaster time and time again. Except when it’s us.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    222 years ago

    Not too surprising with how many incels are attracted to that sub. Cutting out porn and masturbating maybe a few times a week is a great idea if you’re suffering from porn or masturbation addiction. Don’t know how they went from that to believing that non-masturbation would make you a superhuman.

    • VOLCEL_POLICE [it/its]B
      link
      fedilink
      English
      192 years ago

      The VOLCEL POLICE are on the scene! PLEASE KEEP YOUR VITAL ESSENCES TO YOURSELVES AT ALL TIMES.

      نحن شرطة VolCel.بناءا على تعليمات الهيئة لترويج لألعاب الفيديو و النهي عن الجنس نرجوا الإبتعاد عن أي أفكار جنسية و الحفاظ على حيواناتكم المنويَّة حتى يوم الحساب. اتقوا الله، إنك لا تراه لكنه يراك.

      volcel-police

      • Tripbin [none/use name]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        82 years ago

        Well how do you explain them showing up to your comment unwanted? Clearly the volcel police have gone off the rails and is a power hugry bot abusing it’s authority. AVPAB.

        • VOLCEL_POLICE [it/its]B
          link
          fedilink
          English
          22 years ago

          The VOLCEL POLICE are on the scene! PLEASE KEEP YOUR VITAL ESSENCES TO YOURSELVES AT ALL TIMES.

          نحن شرطة VolCel.بناءا على تعليمات الهيئة لترويج لألعاب الفيديو و النهي عن الجنس نرجوا الإبتعاد عن أي أفكار جنسية و الحفاظ على حيواناتكم المنويَّة حتى يوم الحساب. اتقوا الله، إنك لا تراه لكنه يراك.

          volcel-police

  • Awoo [she/her]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    77
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    This is part of why history search of comments and posts on reddit had to die via shutting down the api.

    Reddit could not allow too much research like this to expose the underbelly of the site.

    Once the site IPOs it introduces a financial incentive for shorts to find things on the site that can be turned into drama that damages its value, so research like this would find potential finance motivated backers and massively increase in quantity.

    • GinAndJuche [comrade/them]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      322 years ago

      Thoughts on the wisdom of betting against reddit once it goes public? It sounds like free money, especially now that the VC money faucet is turned off.

      • Awoo [she/her]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        32
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        Personally think it’s going to be a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Depending on the starting price r/WSB hype might pump it to begin with. There’s no real telling what happens if that fuckhead Elon involves himself too.

        In the longterm I predict there’s way too much cancer on the site for it to survive with the financial incentive people will have to use that cancer to tank the value. But again it depends on how much they clean up before IPO and whether that clean up avoids a drama collapse in and of itself.

        • GinAndJuche [comrade/them]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          172 years ago

          Long term shorting below the open seems wise in that case. They still don’t have an income stream that covers costs right?

          • Awoo [she/her]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            142 years ago

            I think Spez said a while ago that they were in the black. So I’m not really sure. Various financials will have to be made public too though I think? There’s no way that’s going without incredible scrutiny.

            • GinAndJuche [comrade/them]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              14
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              If it makes sense, Palantir proved that being a favorite of the deep state doesn’t reflect stock price. I eagerly await the opening of the books

      • Juice [none/use name]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        292 years ago

        I’m convinced that the company is being propped up by CIA money, which means they could keep the lights on for decades. They’ve done it before, dumped money in businesses to keep them afloat because they were part of an intelligence operation, like that company that sold encryption machines to foreign governments that all had secret backdoors built into them. Reddit has never made money and it probably never will. Idk as much as I’d like to bet against that hell site I think the thumb is on the scales

      • Owl [he/him]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        212 years ago

        The people planning the IPO are going to try really hard to time/hype/price it so that the stock goes up for a while. They might not succeed, but they’ll keep stalling until they think they can. So give it a few weeks or months before you start betting against it.

        Also use puts instead of actual shorts.

    • Omniraptor [they/them]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      14
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Iirc reddit automatically gives you access to pushshift if you’re the mod of even a small subreddit, or manually if you send an email explaining you’re a researcher. It’s not completely dead