Taken at face value, incels’ demands are nothing less than the socialism of sex. From each according to her ability, to each according to his needs, sex is to be taken out of the control of the individuals having it, placed in the hands of the state, and distributed equally. How will this bureaucratic nightmare of state-sponsored rape work? As with the usual plans of statists, the answer is simply “We’ll pass a law.”

It is hard enough to get people to obey ordinary low-level laws like those governing traffic rules. People also violate more important laws all the time. Yet here we are meant to believe that the state will, by fiat, change the deeply held beliefs and customs of humanity just by scribbling a few words in a statute book.

It would be laughable, except that this is the same theory socialists pursue. Their focus is different—people’s property, not their sexuality—but the aim is the same: take what does not belong to you and distribute it as you see fit, using the coercive power of the state.