RED PILL

Taking the red pill or to be “redpilled” is a reference to the 1999 film The Matrix, in which the protagonist Neo is presented with the choice to take the red pill and see the world as it really is or take the blue pill and continue living life blissfully in a world of illusion. The term is used widely in extremist online communities to refer to the awakening of individuals to radical beliefs. Within alt-right communities, being redpilled means shifting away from mainstream political views towards the racist, sexist, and conspiratorial worldview of the far-right. ¹

In the “manosphere,” a term that encompasses online communities of men’s rights activists (MRAs), incels (involuntary celibates), Men Going their Own Way (MGTOW), and pick-up artists (PUAs), being redpilled means becoming aware of the corrupting influence of feminism in the world. While the various groups in the manosphere have different ideologies, being redpilled in those communities can be summed up by their belief in the 80/20 rule, “which says that 80% of women desire just 20% of men. This means that the vast majority of men will never be desirable and consequentially will never find sexual fulfillment and happiness.” ² Feminism, they believe, has given women far too much power and has resulted in “hypergamy,” an incel term for women only selecting “alphas,” hypermasculine, attractive males at the top of the social hierarchy.

In the incel community, being redpilled is just the first step in an individual’s journey towards radicalization. It means that an individual has awareness of perceived injustice in the world and is motivated to take action, including measures such as working out, plastic surgery, and pickup artistry to “improve” his situation. Taking what is known as the black pill represents the next step; those who have been blackpilled believe that the system is stacked against them and there is nothing they can do about it. These blackpilled individuals feel that their only options are to LDAR (“Lie down and rot” in incel parlance), commit suicide, or “go ER,” a reference to Elliot Rodger, who killed six people near campus at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014. Suicide, death, rape, and violence are often glorified in incel forums as the only means that can affect change on a wrongful status quo. ³