By Sarah Mitchell, March 24, 2025 

Last Friday night, over a couple of IPAs at our parents’ place, my little brother Jake—24, perpetually online, and a self-proclaimed “Incel”—talked me into something I’m still regretting: posting on 4chan’s /pol/ about trans women. I’m a journalist, 32, single, usually digging into stories about equal pay or campus assault stats for mid-tier outlets. I’ve faced my share of angry X comments, but 4Chan? That’s Jake’s cesspool. He’s been hooked since high school, "You’re Miss Feminist, Sarah,” he said, grinning like an idiot. “Ask /pol/ why they’re obsessed with trans chicks—they’ll eat you alive, and it’ll be hilarious.” I rolled my eyes, but the reporter in me bit. What’s driving these guys? Could I get anything real out of them? Big mistake.

For the uninitiated, 4chan’s an anonymous imageboard where people vomit whatever’s festering in their skulls—no accounts, no filter. /pol/—“politically incorrect”—is its ugliest swamp: a mix of incels (guys who can’t get laid and blame women), edgelords, and trolls who’d dox their own dog for clout. I knew it’d be a warzone, but I posted anyway: “Journalist Here: Why Are You Guys So Obsessed with Trans Women? Serious Replies Only.” Yeah, “serious” was optimistic.
Thread exploded with 50 replies in 15 minutes. First up, a Canadian “Tits or GTFO.” /pol/ 101—if you’re female, you’re either porn or trash. An American followed: “You a tranny, OP? Post bussy or neck yourself.” Drooling over imaginary boy-ass—sad. Then a poster from the UK said “Piss off, Tranny, go choke on some troon cock.” Troon’s their trans slur, real creative. It was a slurry of brain-dead noise. I responded to them politely and with evidence I was a journalist, “thot,” i was frequently called "sage” an insult I had never heard before,“kys” (kill yourself), “whore.” I waded through the muck for anything worth a response.
A couple users tried. American user “Trans women are mentalcase dudes. XY = man, you midwit.” A British user said “They’re gay men in skirts, and you simp for ‘em ‘cause muh oppression.” I hit back, "if XY’s your gospel, explain intersex". The American said “Intersex is a mutant glitch, means fck-all, women shouldn't vote.” Then a Swedish user rolled in, unhinged: “BBC owns your trannies, femtard. BNWO’s here—white bois get mogged by BLACKED kings.” He dumped a porn pic of some Black guy’s junk. I questioned if sharing porn like that was sexual assult.
Thread went full meltdown. 131 replies i was asked if I was Jewish, various insults were slung against me and other women all whist the Sweedish user apammed porn whist saying drival such as “BNWO will BLACK your holes, make white boys trans for me". An Australian chimed in: “If they pass, I’d fuck ‘em, but most are ugly.”
It was a screaming abyss. These guys incels, porn-fried loners, rage machines—aren’t just fixated on trans women; they hate everything. Women, “woke” culture, men who outshine them, the air they breathe. Trans women are just another dartboard for their bottomless spite. I went in hoping for a shred of insight, maybe a real exchange, but /pol/’s a void where thoughts go to die. Still, I held my line: trans women are women, and no slur-storm or Swedish porn spam changes that. Beneath the venom, though, I saw desperation—lost dudes clawing for control in a world they’ve checked out from. Thanks, Jake—I’m sticking to city council meetings next time.