The choice between taking a blue or red pill is a central metaphor in the 2011 Arte documentary film Marx Reloaded, in which philosophers including Slavoj Žižek and Nina Power explore solutions to the global economic and financial crisis of 2008–09. The film also contains an animated parody of the red/blue pill scene in The Matrix, with Leon Trotsky as Morpheus and Karl Marx as Neo.Ha ha. I want to see that. Aha!
I love cartoons. Are they real life? Are they just fantasy?
Anyway, yesterday, Elon Musk tweeted: "Take the red pill." That's the whole tweet. What did he want to take the red pill about?
And Ivanka was right there:
Taken! https://t.co/Ng0S2OFC93— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) May 17, 2020
Does she know? I mean, there is no pill to take to get you exactly to reality. If you use the metaphor, you're simply insisting that YOU know where reality is and that other people are living in a fantasy world. It's just a pop-culture, cheeky way to assert that YOU know what is true and those other people are wrong. But Elon Musk's tweet doesn't specify the thing that is asserted to be true. And Ivanka is signaling that she's in on the truth and it's the same truth that Elon Musk is pushing.
You can look at his Twitter feed and try to get a sense of what he's talking about. My previous post is about another Elon Musk tweet — one that rages against the extenuation of the coronavirus lockdown — but this "red pill" tweet isn't close to that in the feed. The lockdown protest was back on May 14th and this "red pill" business was on the 17th.
Now, maybe he's just saying, Let's all look at what's really real. Turn away from the fantasy life that might make you feel good, but the truth is better.
That makes me think of the Jesus catchphrase: "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
ADDED: The director of "The Matrix" responds to Elon and Ivanka: "Fuck both of you."
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91 comments:
The red pill starts with the belief that nature exists and there are fundamental truths that exist in all times
I was never sure which pill was which. "The Red Pill" is also a men's rights group and the title of a documentary a feminist made about it. The movement is said to be "controversial" and the movie "strangely sympathetic." I wasn't aware of this until recently, but apparently the film has generated much chatter from the commentariat and much commentary from the chattering class.
Didn't know Jesus had a catchphrase. Interesting take.
THEOLDMAN
Took the Red Pill 5 years ago. Never been happier.
The conspiracy subreddit had a post suggesting the single rose refers to pedophilia.
...but this "red pill" tweet isn't close to that in the feed
Dun matter. It's still a reference to the rejection of lockdown fanaticism.
One doesn’t take the red pill about a particular thing. It’s all-or-nothing.
Some people will only take the red pill as a forced suppository.
I am Laslo.
I saw the Ivanka reply as both savvy and flirty.
"The red pill starts with the belief that nature exists and there are fundamental truths that exist in all times." If you start with a fundamental truth like that, you are looking for confirmation. That's not the concept of the red pill. That's more blue pill: Stay in your beautiful comfortable world, the one with eternal truths manifested all around you in nature. If you don't see this problem... check your meds.
Breaking now: Lilly Wachowski Tells Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump ‘F— Both of You’ After They Quote ‘The Matrix’.
Lilly, formerly Andrew, brother of Lana, formerly Laurence. Both went trans. Does that make gender dysphoria hereditary or contagious?
From the linked Wikipedia article: "In some parts of the men's rights movement, the term "red pill" is used as a metaphor for the specific moment when they come to the belief that certain gender roles they are expected to conform to, such as marriage and monogamy, are intended to benefit women, not themselves. In 2016, a documentary titled The Red Pill was released, which deals with the men's rights movement."
Maybe that's the application whitney is thinking of.
How frustrating for the Wachowskis that their film, when filtered through someone else's reality, doesn't mean what they think it means.
"Didn't know Jesus had a catchphrase. Interesting take."
Write a screenplay where Jesus and his gang use it as a catchphrase. Make it a comedy.
Jesus' second favorite catchphrase was "You know you want me, baby!"
F Hollwyood.
PBS world's new theme is "Brave New World" - lol. of course it is.
The feeling of a wrong being righted is gratifyingly absent from the Wachowski response.
Re the director of The Matrix, when you put your art out into the world, it takes on a life of its own, and its meaning evolves as others respond to it. New unintended meanings come into being. Lilly Wachowski needs to grow up and get a life.
By the way, there are now black pills (despair), white pills (pollyanna), and transparent pills (?).
Accepting the red pill is a start on something new but it is the endpoint of something else. Presumably someone that accepts the red pill has examined the world as it has been presented and found it filled with things that are the demonstrably false and then looks to see if it's possible to discover what is true.
"Red Pill" is more broad than just MRA, and close to the concept from The Matrix. It's the realization that institutions aren't there to help you, but themselves and their power, and that they've been manipulating you to agree with them. They've not been telling you what you should know, but what you should think.
Morpheous: Everything begins with a choice.
Merovingian: No, wrong. Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.
Look there, at that woman. My God just look at her…affecting everyone around here…so obvious, so bourgeois, so boring. But wait, watch. You see, I have sent her dessert; very special dessert. I wrote it myself. It’s starts so simply….each line of the program creating an effect just like…poetry. First a rush, heat, the heart flutters, you can see it now, yes? She does not understand why. Is it the wine? No. What is it then? What is the reason? Soon it doesn’t matter. Soon the why and the reason are gone and all that matters is the feeling itself. And this is the nature of the universe, we struggle against it, we try to deny it but of course it is pretense. It is a lie. Beneath our poised appearance the truth is that we are completely out of control.
(Inhales)Causality, there is no escape from it. We are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace is to understand it. To understand Why. Why is what separates us from them, you from me? Why is the only real source of power, without it you are powerless. And this is how you come to me? Without why, without power? Another link in the chain.
But you are right. I do think the world is beautiful and I also think Beauty and Truth are intertwined
That Elon Musk is getting rather pesky.
Obama appropriated his own version of red pill/blue pill in his disastrous July 22, 2009 press conference (exactly one month after Pelosi’s famous “pass it to see what’s in it” blunder). Like all his personal sale pitches for Obamacare it actually reduced public support after he answered a reporter’s question about her 105-year-old grandmother who needs surgery. Obama’s response was that the Obamacare review board might determine granny was too old for lifesaving surgery and “she might be ‘better off’ taking the red pill” instead. Pretty famous red pill moment.
Link: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/06/26/obama_maybe_youre_better_off_taking_painkillers_and_forgoing_surgery.html
The director of The Matrix thinks he knows what Elon Musk means. I think he took the blue pill.
Professor, it's possible to be too clever. A=A, to borrow a phrase. The notion that the truly fundamentral truths can be dodged is one only the extremely ignorant elite have the luxury of believing- and that not for long. Call those truths the Copybook Headings, the Iron Laws, as you like. Some people stay blind as long as consequences aren't literally knocking on the door.
By the way, for obvious reasons Rollo and the entire manosphere, whatever their faults, are doing a hell of a lot more with the red pill concept than freakshows like the Wachowski Brothers ever managed.
Dr. Althouse: "The red pill starts with the belief that nature exists and there are fundamental truths that exist in all times." If you start with a fundamental truth like that, you are looking for confirmation. That's not the concept of the red pill. That's more blue pill: Stay in your beautiful comfortable world, the one with eternal truths manifested all around you in nature. If you don't see this problem... check your meds.
TIL physicists are all delusional and should check their meds.
Write a screenplay where Jesus and his gang use it as a catchphrase. Make it a comedy.
So, Godspell, then.
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall
I've thought of it as shorthand for "even the paranoid have real enemies" or "not all conspiracy theories are crazy."
Of course I'd love to see "red pill" mean "my perceptions are real," and I do think my side of the aisle has more to go on in that regard. But many of my friends don't share my political perspective, and I know they are people of goodwill and intelligence - they just appear to check in with their feelings rather than their intelligence when they form political and public policy opinions. This makes me wonder what I'm using my feelings for - which keeps me on an adversarial footing with regard to my own opinions, always trying to check them against the verifiable, which is perhaps a functional definition of being red-pilled.
The Merovingian: Causality, there is no escape from it. We are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace is to understand it. To understand Why. Why is what separates us from them, you from me? Why is the only real source of power, without it you are powerless. And this is how you come to me? Without why, without power? Another link in the chain.
Persephone: I am so sick and tired of his bullshit!
In peddling Obamacare, BHO famously suggested that Americans take the blue pill (Obamacare) because it is just as good and costs half as much.
That is what what a lot of us see when we say take the red pill.
I tried to watch "The Matrix", but it was too boring.
Another option is to take the rainbow colored pill, and fuck your life, and mind all up.
" The director of "The Matrix" responds to Elon and Ivanka: "Fuck both of you."
The Wachowksis wrote the concept of the red pill when they were biological men.
Having both since transitioned, their choosing of living in the female emotional state prevents them from understanding the concept any longer in any analytical way.
They ended up taking the Pink Pill, and have thus evaded personal responsibility, choosing a matrix where a man can be a woman if he says so.
The Pink Pill is what the media now feeds you.
I am Laslo.
and joss whedon was on loki and unwittingly on hydra and thanos size, what is the snap, but the ultimate 'bending the curve' exercise, so I'm on the side of Berenson, ginn, Henderson, wittkowski and osterholm, that's the side that doesn't abide by the models that ferguson couldn't even abide by, as with murray, its the same narrative re steele, that was echoed everywhere by the echo chamber, they were all wrong, and have yet to apologize.
"Does she know? I mean, there is no pill to take to get you exactly to reality."
The only way to know there is a pill if you take it. I probably should not be telling you this.
What happens if you take two pills? You know somebody will do that. Somebody always has to try more.
My impression
Take the Red Pill = Pull aside / Tear down that Curtain
what and where is the Curtain >>> Leftist Democratic Expert Curated MSM and Deep State narrative presented daily for your delusionectation
The red pill symbolizes they trumpia side of fantasy world while the blue pillow represents the Pelosi side of the fantasy world. Cherry and Berry flavored Soma
Good one tcrosse. It made me think of this:
What a drag it is getting old
"Kids are different today"
I hear ev'ry mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill
There's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day
Wachowski is a trans “woman.” Doesn’t get more “blue pill” than that!
"But you are right. I do think the world is beautiful and I also think Beauty and Truth are intertwined."
So, you admit it! You took the blue pill!
Regarding their transitions, it's really remarkable that of all people, the creators of the Matrix both have now concluded that reality is what the mind says it is.
Methinks Bill Maher has taken the red pill
Maher On OCD Pandemic Overreaction: ‘What’s The Point Of Life If You Can’t Live It?’
I mean, there is no pill to take to get you exactly to reality. If you use the metaphor, you're simply insisting that YOU know where reality is and that other people are living in a fantasy world. It's just a pop-culture, cheeky way to assert that YOU know what is true and those other people are wrong.
Twenty or thirty years ago, the phrase was "They just don't get it."
Another one that pops up every century or so was "What's the matter with Kansas?" When it came up last time the meaning was "Why don't they understand what is in their best interest as well as we do?"
This is the way that people have always talked in private with others who share their own opinions. When they become public talking points it's a sign that people aren't interested in convincing those with other opinions, but in shaming, ignoring, or dismissing them.
I don't know what the whole journey of the Wachowskis is really like for them, but I loved the movie "Bound," before the first "Matrix," and I thought "The Matrix" was fantastic. The second Matrix movie wasn't good and I stopped caring what the Wachowskis did after that. It seemed to go along with a lot of other Hollywood superhero/action film bullshit that completely bores me. I don't care about their gender identities, only what they put on the screen. Is it great or is it not worth my time? Either/or. I have no idea how much their gender dysphoria inspired their art, but I look at the art as art and don't care about them as celebrities.
Of course, I'm not surprised that they hate to see the red pill/blue pill concept from their movie prove useful to people who are saying things they don't agree with, but I would prefer to see an artist feel rewarded that their idea lasted in people's mind and that they thought about it and kept it alive as they went forward into life with ideas of their own. The urge to control it and reserve it for people who share their politics is actually quite disgusting and it's inconsistent with the best ideas about art.
Prof. Althouse:
"'...nature exists and there are fundamental truths that exist in all times.' If you start with a fundamental truth like that, you are looking for confirmation....That's more blue pill: Stay in your beautiful comfortable world, the one with eternal truths manifested all around you in nature. If you don't see this problem... check your meds."
The idea that nature's truths exist doesn't mean you or others perceive them correctly. You try, and if you're humble, you know you may never know whether you got it right. You hope to have come close, or closer than when you started. Whatever comfort you do or don't find in that depends on you. Maybe I'm missing your point, and should check my meds.
Christy, 7:18: Nicely done!
"The second Matrix movie wasn't good and I stopped caring what the Wachowskis did after that."
-- The second movie suffered a lot. The Matrix is another set of movies that would have been better with no sequels.
I was under the impression that taking the red pill now simply means leaving the Democrat herd mentality. Musk may. To have meant that, but I bet Ivanka did.
Sometimes you just have to take a pill. Any pill.
"Fuck both of you." Oh, that's lovely :) Now do #MeToo.
"ADDED: The director of "The Matrix" responds to Elon and Ivanka.."
Boy. Those conservatives are sure haters aren't they? Divisive even.
You're all thinking too much into this. (that's what happens here, I know). But as you know this has been going on for the past few years as more and more formerly liberal Democrats see how bizarre the progressive movement has become and see that they constant babble about conservatives being only white supremacists, racists, ist ists, etc is bullshit. They see the ridiculousness of the collectivist extremes of the progressive movement and the race to totalitarianism, statism, socialism.
The wake up one day and realize they are conservatives. Colloquially, they 'took the red pill'.
I did not know the Wachowski Brothers were now the Wachowski sisters. Whatever. Fuck them either way. Matrix 1 was great. But they don't own me or the idea of a red pill. No one asked them.
The urge to control it and reserve it for people who share their politics is actually quite disgusting and it's inconsistent with the best ideas about art.
Beautifully put. It's also so juvenile.
but it in keeping with propaganda as 1984 illustrated,
https://www.dailywire.com/news/cuomo-snaps-when-pressed-on-nursing-home-death-scandal-nobody-can-be-prosecuted-for-it
Obama’s response was that the Obamacare review board might determine granny was too old for lifesaving surgery and “she might be ‘better off’ taking the red pill” instead. Pretty famous red pill moment.
I thought he was suggesting Seconal. Keep her asleep until the final big sleep.
"Lilly Wachowski needs to grow up and get a life."
Or just grow a pair.... ?
https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2009/01/gentle-introduction-to-unqualified/
The red pill has many meanings but the first I remember post Matrix is Mencius Moldbug's assertion that America is an Orwellian mind control state. Moldbug has some crazy ideas but he seems pretty right with this one.
The Truth? You Can't Handle The Truth!
I don't want to remember nothing. Nothing. You understand? [pause] And I want to be rich. You know, someone important, like an actor.
You get my body back at the power plant, reinsert me into the Matrix, I'll get what you want.
The urge to control it and reserve it for people who share their politics is actually quite disgusting and it's inconsistent with the best ideas about art.
And it's been happening for decades at least. How often does a band complain about someone using their song for a political campaign?
Hmm, hadn’t noticed before that you can’t spell Matrix without Marx.
I was told that under Obamacare I could keep my red pills.
BTW, they hate people using red pill/blue pill because they are the standard fucking Left-wing Hollyweirdos. That's it. Bringing their "trans" into it, is absurd. Fortunately, you can use phrases from a movie, without the Copyright police arresting you.
I got all the Matrix movies for $2 at a sale. I still haven't watched the 2nd one. The first one was pretty to look at, but I can't remember the plot.
This should be seen in the context of Elon Musk's earlier tweet - "Message received"
It's ironic that the only argument that Lorena Gonzelez and Lilly Wachowski have is F**k you. these are supposed to be intelligent and creative people, but they are showing themselves to be narrow minded, ignorant authoritarians.
Yes - take the red pill - you will see what these people are like.
but I loved the movie "Bound," before the first "Matrix," and I thought "The Matrix" was fantastic.
I have to disagree with the professor here. I thought both movies were examples of pretentious crap.
"The director of "The Matrix" responds to Elon and Ivanka: "Fuck both of you.""
Prog humankind cannot bear very much reality.
Non-progs appropriating your meme? The horror.
I have been Red Pilled, and I am unhappy on the Path the US is on. My daughter compares US society to the decadence of the last days of Rome, that led to it's fall.
My parents are definitely on the Blue Pill, and they are deep believers of the Ministry of Truth. My Father loves to tell me he has not read (insert subject anti party line) in the Economist, Bloomberg, The Week, LA Times. Star News, etc. My parents are very well read, unfortunately the stuff they read is converged and sanitized.
And most of the Samizdat I read, on the Internet, does not have the professional imprimatur they so value.
I used to love to read the LA Times, and now when I do when I visit my parents house, I notice all the slanted writings, and it's unpleasant. Asking basic questions such as why this headline, who is the writer, what is their agenda, leads to unpleasant truths.
"Jesus' second favorite catchphrase was "You know you want me, baby!"
And his third, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
Pretty much his go-to pick-up line.
Very red-pillish, that Jesus. Especially to people who've taken a blue pill.
Trump has been a huge red pill in the cultural war in the US.
Amazing how many blue pill Overton windows he has Demolished.
The Red Pill reality is a course of therapy that must be taken faithfully as prescribed by Dr. Q. Elon and the rest of the intelligent observers worldwide have known about that for years. The Americans are the ones way behind. They are awaiting for the MSM to allow that Reality into their thoughts. Meanwhile DJT has destroyed the MSM. Stay tuned.
Come on! Whatever the previous pop culture references, this use of "the red pill" has to refer to red and blue states, or politics. Musk is saying reject the Democrat/media narrative (blue) and "take the red pill (MAGA!)."
And his third, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
Pretty much his go-to pick-up line.
...at CCD we were taught it was Yah, that's me on the crucifix! Or so I recall...
Althouse,
But we can - absolutely - know which vision of the world is closer to reality. That vision is the one that has, in the past, more closely aligned with events.
For example, when a couple of months ago I predicted starvation in third world countries, that was a testable hypothesis.
When I suggested the economic loss would be worse than the loss caused by virus, that was testable.
When I took the under on 200,000 deaths - suggested by Meade - that was testable.
So let's be clear. My predictions have been correct more often than the vaunted SCIENCE! believers. And the ones left to test look to be accurate, also. So perhaps certain opinions deserve more weight based on past performance.
I'm looking for pictures of Lilly starting now...
I wish I wouldn't have done that...
Ann Althouse said...
I don't know what the whole journey of the Wachowskis is really like for them, but I loved the movie "Bound," before the first "Matrix," and I thought "The Matrix" was fantastic. The second Matrix movie wasn't good. . .
Yeah, the sequels sucked for the most part. I remember watching The Matrix the first time and when he wakes up in the pod it was like "WUUUUUUUUUUUUUT THE F***!!!!!!" And the end part is one of the best, albeit totally predictable, movie endings of all time, IMO.
Red Pill = Seeing things the way they really are, not the reality others have made for you to see. It's pretty simple. The Cassie Jaye (anti)Feminist documentary exemplifies that (and was quite good): She was raised to believe the reality that Feminism had given her, but eventually came to doubt it and reject most of that worldview based on actual data (e.g., that 95% of all workplace deaths are men).
One of the ironies here is that the Wachowskis brothers recent Netflix series, Sense8, was basically censored and rewritten in it's second season because the left didn't think it was politically correct enough.
I say this not based on anything the Wachowskis have said but because it is more or less obvious if you watch the series.
The series starts off strong and in my opinion the opening sequence is stunningly beautiful. The Wachowskis clearly intended the series to be a celebration of human sexual diversity and it remains that, but they ran awful of the imperative to make most white people evil and other ethnic groups wonderful. The series was unusual and must have been expensive to make because they filmed it with eight different teams in eight different countries.
But simply filming scenes with the real urban Nigeria in the background was all by itself unacceptable to social justice warriors, I suspect.
Further as the second series makes clear it was unacceptable to have Mexican characters that were wife abusers and of course black people that were not saints.
But curiously, in the second season, it was okay to have evil South Korean characters in addition to the white people.
This he/she is a dead ringer for that he/she on the American Heroes Channel.
The red pill is acknowledging that the lockdowns could never continue beyond a month or two without killing far more people than the virus would. We had enough data in our hands in early March to know this, but the insanity had spread exponentially by that point in time. Musk, hate or love him, had big skin in the game- actual responsibility for the material well being of himself and thousands of employees.
I wrote a comment almost two months ago now that the lockdowns would never have happened if all the people "working" from home had had to file for unemployment benefits along with all the non-essential workers who got laid off. Skin in the game is an important concept- it concentrates the intellect, and forces evaluation of costs and benefits.
I had forgotten the red-pill scene in Total Recall, even though I have seen the movie 3 or 4 times, but probably not since The Matrix came out in 1999.
"The Matrix is another set of movies that would have been better with no sequels."
Ricky Gervais's great line about a Sophie's Choice sequel:
"I guess it's him, then."
We can hyper analyze everything. But for those who move in the political blue and red divide The meaning is obvious. I have not watched an American made movie in its entirety for years I find them tedious, repetitive and truthfully boring.
I loved Sense8. Yes, the first season was stronger than the second, but still loved both. It was a great pity it was cancelled.
As for The Matrix trilogy, the first movie is far superior to either of the two sequels, but the second one isn't a bad movie at all- the problem is that, for whatever reason, the filmakers didn't follow through on the clear plot line they seemed to establish at the end of the second installment- that the "real world" wasn't real either- that was my take-away from the very last scene where Neo "senses" the machine and stops it like he would inside the Matrix itself. After viewing the second film the first time, I was thinking about the Star Trek TNG episode "Ship in a Bottle". Then the third film came out and seem to abandon all of that set up.
Blogger Temujin said...
"You're all thinking too much into this. (that's what happens here, I know). But as you know this has been going on for the past few years as more and more formerly liberal Democrats see how bizarre the progressive movement has become and see that they constant babble about conservatives being only white supremacists, racists, ist ists, etc is bullshit. They see the ridiculousness of the collectivist extremes of the progressive movement and the race to totalitarianism, statism, socialism.
The wake up one day and realize they are conservatives. Colloquially, they 'took the red pill'. ..."
This, and "the Red Pill" has been a pop culture theme on 4chan /pol/ for several years now. Musk and Ivanka (both supposedly lurkers on /pol/) are referencing your colloquial red pill.
Sometimes the artist doesn't even fully comprehend the art he has created. Both The Matrix and V for Vendetta are by the Wachowsky's, and have similar message about the fight to break free from the shackles of tyranny. This seems like a universal message. Now they seem not to grasp that fact, when it goes against their politics.
I think that Ivanka and Jared were Aspen ski-slope liberals who thought the two parties were both patriotic, and over the last three years, they more than nearly anyone found themselves ostracized and demonized because they sought to help govern America. No better candidate for taking the red pill.
And so, I wandered into Plato's Cave. Only to find that not only are there no red pills there, but that there are no red pills. Anywhere.
(Yet red pill vs blue pill remains a useful metaphor. Even if the Matrix was not such a good movie, and seems even less so 10+ years later.)
I always get a kick out of the left calling itself 'The Reality-based Community' when nothing could be further from the truth. Or reality.
Good use of Jesus as an adjective there
I loved sense8.
That was 21 years ago.
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