Entering the auditorium to watch my high school perform a musical, a girl I had recently met texted me that she was also there watching the show.
The auditorium was packed, so my friends and I could barely find a seat, let alone the girl who texted me. Throughout the musical, I was filled with an underlying anxiety about an awkward interaction with her. This fear pushed me away from talking to her, leading me to leave the musical without ever speaking with her.
This ruined my future chances with her, which I definitely regret. Yet to specific members of a movement called the “Red Pill,” I did the right thing.
The “Red Pill” is an online community hosted on Reddit, which spews messages of misogyny and prejudice against women.
The community’s name, “Red Pill,” is a reference to an iconic question asked by the character Morbius to Neo in the 1999 movie The Matrix: “‘You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.’”
To this community, the “Red Pill” represents a fundamental truth that governs our society, which when learned allows men to escape the “matrix,” or their societal disadvantage in finding a female partner.
Because of the internet’s interconnectivity, people with this deluded mindset are able to interact and forge a deep-rooted community, which has spread from small Reddit forums to larger audiences on social media platforms, and high-traffic websites, creating an online network of different “Red Pill” sites called “the manosphere.”
Forged from this idea are the “Red Pill” movement’s most radical and popular groups, including involuntary celibates (incels) and Men Going Their Own Ways (MGTOWs).
Men following the MGTOW philosophy seek to separate themselves from what they view as a female-dominant world, mainly by not forming relationships with women.
Because of the internet’s interconnectivity, people with this deluded mindset are able to interact and forge a deep-rooted community, which has spread from small Reddit forums to larger audiences on social media platforms, and high-traffic websites, creating an online network of different “Red Pill” sites called “the manosphere.”
The “Manosphere” enables “Red Pill” male groups to separate themselves from the female gender, causing these groups to develop the idea that men and women are wildly different creatures each with their own set of specific roles within society.
Recently, a twenty-two-year-old named Tres Genco, who “identified as an incel,” was found to have formulated a plot to kill women and intended to carry it out.” Genco’s desire to “slaughter women was out of hatred, jealousy, and revenge,” demonstrating how the manosphere’s extremist views can infect one’s judgment.
Life is brutal, and hiding from that reality does nothing but hamper one’s ability to discover the beauty which lies beyond life’s hardships.
So next time you’re confronted by an awkward situation, embrace it.
