The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) has been rocked by a series of false bomb threats that have paralyzed its facilities, from the School of Political Science to high schools such as ENP 6 and 8. The threats began on October 1, 2025, and were spread by “incels,” a digital subculture that seeks to vent personal frustration through acts of virtual terror. Social media links these incidents to the recent murder of a student at CCH Sur, allegedly perpetrated by an incel.
The city’s prosecutor’s office has identified at least two suspects, who have been summoned to testify, and their digital trail reveals profiles saturated with misogynistic resentment. This phenomenon is not isolated: incels, who call themselves “involuntary celibates,” see UNAM as a symbolic target for their crusade against what they perceive as a hostile world.
The emergence of these incels in the UNAM ecosystem is evidenced by viral posts celebrating the evacuations as “victories” against “academic feminism,” a discourse that resonates in digital forums and has escalated from memes to real threats. Cyber Police suggest that the perpetrators could belong to a branch of incels known as “groypers,” originating in the United States and Europe.
X users have shared screenshots of emails and posts detailing plans for “symbolic attacks” to generate panic, disrupt classes, and sow distrust in UNAM.
Incels emerged as a digital subculture born in 2010 on forums like Reddit and 4chan, where young, mostly heterosexual men gather to lament their lack of romantic and sexual success, attributing it to a supposed genetic or social “hierarchy” that condemns them to invisibility. Psychosocially, this ideology is rooted in loneliness amplified by the digital age: studies such as those from the University of Toronto highlight how post-pandemic isolation and youth unemployment foster an “echo effect” in online communities, where mutual validation transforms vulnerability into collective rage. Anthropologically, it represents a modern mutation of tribal rituals of exclusion, where the “other”—women, “chads” (attractive men)—is demonized to forge group identity.
Its anthropological origins trace back to mythical narratives of masculine purity, similar to those of ancient warrior sects, but adapted to late capitalism: the promise of sexual meritocracy collides with realities of inequality, generating a backlash that anthropologists like David Graeber link to labor alienation in post-industrial societies. Its appeal lies in its promise of empowerment through victimhood; Cognitive-behavioral therapies, according to APA reports, show that many incels in the United States suffer from untreated anxiety disorders, channeled into extreme ideologies that offer illusory solace.
The impact at UNAM has been mass evacuations and the suspension of classes at at least 18 campuses, as well as a climate of paranoia.
Authorities, in coordination with the Cyber Police, are making progress in dismantling these networks: the two main suspects face charges of false alarms, with sentences of up to three years.
In a broader context, these incel threats illustrate the global export of toxic subcultures: from shootings in the US to harassment in Europe, the pattern is the same. In Mexico, where gender-based violence is already endemic, the emergence of incels in educational spaces like UNAM accelerates the need for a profound debate about the gap between the democratic promise of education and the reality of digital exclusions that foster extremism.
