Based and Redpilled

About

Based and Redpilled is a phrase combining the popular internet slang terms "based," essentially the opposite of cringe, and "redpilled," a term used to describe someone who has experienced an epiphany of an unpleasant truth of reality and can no longer see things the same way. The combined phrase is most often used to praise controversial people or opinions and is most frequently used on 4chan's /pol/ board, both ironically and sincerely.

Origin

The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, however, both words in the phrase have been used extensively on 4chan prior to their combination: "based" originating in 2010 from rapper Lil B the Based God and "redpilled" originating from the film The Matrix, where eating the red pill shows someone the disturbing truth behind the world.

On December 2nd, 2013, an anonymous user of 4chan's^[2] /pol/ board commented on a thread praising rapper Kanye West for being redpilled, saying, "Every time a celebrity even hints at going against something mainstream, even just a little bit, /pol/ immediately has 4 threads dedicated to how 'based' and 'redpilled' they are" (shown below). The post goes on to argue against West being based or redpilled, using several racist terms, and is the earliest known use of the phrase.

On January 23rd, 2014, an anonymous user of 4chan's^[1] /pol/ board made a post calling a Polish politician and his extreme beliefs based and redpilled, offering the earliest known repeated use of the phrase (shown below).

Spread

The phrase spread across /pol/ and other 4chan boards over the course of the year where it was used to promote controversial opinions and people (usually politicians) as agreeable and truthful (example shown below). It became common parlance on the site over the next few years.

The phrase and its individual terms, "based" and "redpilled," started to spread across social media and received attention from the media, usually as "alt-right" terms starting around 2016. For example, on November 26th, 2016, Vice^[3] published an article titled, "How to Tell if Your Alt-Right Relative Is Trying to Redpill You at Thanksgiving." On October 30th, 2017, Quartz^[4] published an article titled, "The alt-right is creating its own dialect. Here’s the dictionary" mentioning "red pill."

On September 4th, 2018, Redditor u/wsgy111 posted a screenshot to /r/4chan^[5] of musician Taylor Swift posing with a number of fans, her hand hovering in the last photo where she is posing with a young Black girl, titled "TayTay is Based and Redpilled," garnering over 13,800 upvotes in three years and offering an example of the term's use to prop up controversial ideas (shown below, left). On July 1st, 2019, Redditor u/JaydenDenino posted a drawing to /r/okbuddyretard^[6] of Morpheus from The Matrix offering a blue pill labeled, "cure for cancer" and a red pill labeled, "Family Guy funniest moments #12," titled "based and redpilled," garnering over 31,000 upvotes in two years and showing the phrase's popularity in ironic memes, unrelated to truly controversial opinions.

Various Examples

External References