Red Pill

About

The Red Pill is a metaphorical term used to describe the epiphany of the unpleasant truth of reality in a wide range of contexts. Originally introduced as a crucial plot device in the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix, the term has gained widespread usage online among conspiracy theorists and other advocates of minority views in defense of their radical beliefs and proselytism of new adherents. Conversely, the term “blue pill” is used to describe the act of choosing blissful ignorance over the harsh truth.

Origin

The science-fictional concepts of the “red pill” and the “blue pill” originate from the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix, wherein the main protagonist Neo (portrayed by Keanu Reeves) is offered to take either a blue-colored pill or a red-colored pill, the former of which would allow him to remain in the simulated universe within “The Matrix” and enjoy the comforts of life in ignorance, while the latter would lead him to escape from the fabricated reality into the physical realm that is harsher and more challenging in nature.

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. (long pause, sighs) Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. (In his left hand, Morpheus shows a blue pill.)

Morpheus: You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. (a red pill is shown in his other hand) You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Long pause; Neo begins to reach for the red pill) Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.

(Neo takes the red pill and swallows it with a glass of water)

Spread

• On October 29th, 2004, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Ironuckles submitted an entry for “Red Pill,” describing the term as "a popular phrase among cyberculture and signifies a free-thinking attitude, and a waking up from a “normal” life of sloth and ignorance." As of March 2016, the entry remains the most upvoted definition of the term.

• In November 2005, Greg Taylor launched The Red Pill^[11], an alternative Wikipedia project designed to “catalogue all of those things on the stranger side of reality,” including many topics that had been rejected by Wikipedia due to their fringe subject matters.

• On June 11th, 2006, the Social Science Research Council^[13] ran an article titled “The Red Pill” by University of Colorado’s sociology professor Kathleen Tierney. In the article, Tierney draws a comparison between taking the “red pill” and recognizing that the Bush administration’s post 9/11 policies haven’t made the nation safer, and particularly in the context of emergency response to the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina.

• On August 3rd, 2006, Polish computer scientist Joanna Rutkowska unveiled the “Blue Pill” rootkit, a special type of software that utilizes techniques of modern CPUs to render a virtual platform on which the entire operating system (OS) runs, as well as “Red Pill” techniques that allows the OS to detect the presence of such virtual platform.

Men’s Rights Movement

Sometime between the late 2000s and early 2010s, the term “red pill” became prominently adopted by advocates of the men’s rights movement and subscribers of the manosphere as a metaphor for the supposed epiphany of gender inequiality against men, or beliefs that contemporary social values and gender role expetations are intended to benefit women more than men. On October 25th, 2012, Redditor RedPillSchool launched the subreddit TheRedPill,^[3] which has accrued nearly 144,000 subscribers, as of March 2016.

Search Interest

External References