Inspiration for this essay: In my previous post there was a comment along the lines of, “TRP is only useful when it comes to dating advice for men” and unfortunately, there is a lot of truth to it. Most of the content that is from the Red Pillers revolve around the nature of women, even though there is a lot of content around becoming 1% better every day, a remarkable proportion of Red Pill content is based around female nature.

Due to that, I have attempted to try and underline the basics of the Red Pill, what it is, its utility in modern society, its mention in the traditional scriptures, so and so forth. My personal conception and understanding of the Red Pill direct the contents of this essay and any valuable comment that enriches and increases its value is welcome(as always).

About this essay: This essay explains the origin of the Red Pill analogy, the difference between the Blue Pill and the Red Pill, and its purpose in society. This essay is not aimed at painting Red Pillers superior to the Blue Pillers but at understanding what the Red Pill stands for.

Hopefully, this essay will shed some light and add some value to everyone who reads it.

Before you comment: A lot of the readers read content in this subreddit to find faults and give their two cents which are along the lines of, “Red Pillers are stupid and believe in conspiracy theories”. Nothing can be done to stop them, so hopefully, they will be just ignored. Also, valuable examples and corrections are welcomed(because I want to learn more) but don't present counterpoints on the basis of your personal anecdotes. Finally, follow the rules of this sub.

Origin of the analogy

The analogy of the Red Pill comes from the movie The Matrix(1999) where Morpheus offers Neo nothing but the truth(source). The representation of both of the pills shows the difference between actual and perceived reality. The Blue Pill represents what we are led to believe and the Red Pill represents the actual truth that exists underneath the surface. The previous statement is quite a complicated one once you see it through the lens of philosophy and psychology.

What is the difference between “your perception of the reality” and the actual reality? Aren’t they the same? If I perceive, through all of my five senses, it to be true and there is tangible evidence for it, how is it not the real truth? In that very scene, Morpheus describes this. What is real anyway? Is it the chemical signals interpreted by our brain? The skeptical and nihilistic conclusion could be, “We will never know, so, what’s the point of it all anyway? Let’s believe whatever we are told, party hard, and die when the time comes.” The counterpoint for that is the true purpose of the Red Pill and I have explained that in detail in the following paragraphs.

One strikingly similar concept(with one fundamental difference) has been represented by an allegory called “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato. The narrative presented in that book is something like this. There is a cave where people have been imprisoned since early childhood. They have been tied in a way that they are all in a line, side-by-side, facing towards a wall, and their necks are fixed so that they can only see the wall that they are facing. Behind the prisoners, there is a fire, and between the fire and the wall, there goes a lifted pathway where people passing by are carrying things on their heads. The prisoners are only able to see the shadows cast by those objects because of the fire.

Plato continued, the perception of the real world will be based entirely on which shadows they saw while things were being carried on the heads of those people on that path. Suppose one prisoner escapes and goes onto the real world. He will see the real world for the first time, the true real world. He will be blinded by the sunlight as he steps outside because he was never used to the light. This is quite similar to the internal resistance human beings exhibit while being presented with absolute truth. After exploring the real world, he returns to the cave, and upon entering his eyes needs some time to get adjusted to the darkness which the other prisoners interpret as “whatever is outside causes harm”. They are so resistant to the truth that they might be ready to kill someone who attempts to drag them out of that cave, Plato concluded.

The story of Neo in the Matrix is quite similar to that. He saw the truth, believed in it, and fought for it, even though there was resistance. Cypher, who saw the truth and understood it, was so in denial of the truth, probably because it was more disappointing than the fantasy he was told to be true, he betrayed Morpheus.

The Red Pill represents the absolute truth and the Blue Pill represents what you have been led to believe. In order to explain the more granular details of the difference between the Red Pill and the Blue Pill, we need to delve into the precise explanations of the real truth and the perceived truth, which deserves an essay of its own.

Why do people choose the Red Pill?

Individuals who publicly accept and identify themselves as “Red-Pillers” are somewhat met with hostility. They are laughed at, and often are put in a spot in a public place where they are pushed to defend their “pill-choice”. In many places, Red-Pillers are compared to “conspiracy theorists” and are disrespected because of that dogma.

So, the big question is, why do men choose the Red Pill? If you ask most of the men who do consider themselves Red-Pillers will struggle to define it articulately. Even then, despite the lack of a well-formulated definition of the Red Pill, their numbers keep on increasing. Even though those men are silenced, reported, and banned from social media, their message doesn’t die. Granted the left-leaning bias of Google doesn’t favor the nature of content that the Red Pillers put, and communities are getting banned but still, it continues to pop up in different shapes and forms.

If the Red Pill is nothing but a convoluted fictitious theory and there is no truth to it, how in the hell is it attracting so many across the board? Let’s try to find out.

The necessity of the Red Pill

Here is an example from my personal life. I have been told since I was a little boy, that all I need to do is work hard, follow the rules, be harmless and nice, and as a consequence of my controlled(or should I say highly predictable) behavior I will be rewarded by society. I am very sure that many men have heard the same from their parents and were told to play secondary to someone, obey the rules that have been set by someone, and work hard. I followed that, because for me that was what I was led to believe, that was the only truth that I knew.

I was an exemplary student until I was out of college. However, there were no rewards. I recall many moments where I said no to great “fun” plans because I believed what I was told. Even though I saw people breaking the rules, being unjust and “working smart” instead of working hard, they were more successful than me. Students who copied off of me had better grades, better jobs, and lived relatively stress-free.

The biggest mistake was I believed someone else’s truth. I did not have a direct relationship with the reality of the world. My interactions with the world were based on the perception of my parents.

In his book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, Nietzsche explains this phenomenon. He inspires individuals to “go on their own journey” and “seek their own truth” because following a messenger of God, or a philosopher or an intellectual will limit your potential to find the truth(source).

One of the many problems with believing whatever you are told(or not seeking your own truth), is the fact that you will always be dependent on someone else who will make sense of things for you to understand. The answer to “Why didn’t I get that promotion” is “well because you are not working hard enough” in many instances, even though we have realized it to be not true. If you cannot live a truth then it is not true. This has inspired many men to seek their own truth and has been united together on the topic of “sexual and dating strategy in the modern age”, but the Red Pill is much deeper than that. It is not just a way to educate young men to not fall into the traps of women who only look out for themselves.

Every individual has a perspective in this world and if it is articulated well and contains wisdom that can be passed upon, that perspective needs to be heard. The crucial thing is our perspective of the world continues to evolve as we learn more. Take the example of the economy. For a long time, most individuals are under the assumption that we are in control of our finances in the free market economy. As soon those individuals get a job and get a few years of experience under their belt, they start to see the reality. The same thing is applicable to medicines, food, water, and everything we use regularly. Who decides that this thing is safe? What are their motivations? Do they hold power over the common people? Will they ever misuse it, if the desirable circumstances pop up?

For a long time, it has been believed that the Red Pill is the domain of older and more mature men giving dating advice to younger men to protect themselves. In other words, “the Red Pill” discussion space has been dominated by men. This begs the question, do women not need the Red Pill? Do women not have the urge to seek their own truth?

I cannot think of an example that is well thought out at the moment that makes a woman go, “I have been sold a lie” but I will be looking forward to examples if you care to share. I have an example, but it is not well articulated, but it goes something along the lines of, “women have been led to believe that working 60 hours a week at a job that doesn’t care about you is more meaningful than raising the future generation that you made with your body with the person you love”.

Although I do believe that everyone should be financially independent, there is some truth to it where women believe the narrative that they need to max out on their career while sacrificing their own actual needs which make their lives meaningful. Also, why are most modern women dissatisfied with their lives even though they are successful in many ways including careers? More and more modern women in the age of 25-44 are reporting mental distress, these are the women who are high-performing in their fields(source). Have they seen it all and realized that it was not what they wanted? Did they start to realize that they have been sold a lie? Does the “epiphany phase” also apply to the general wisdom of life rather than just the dualistic sexual strategy of the modern woman?

The perspective of the non-Red Pillers

People who are in disbelief of the theories of the Red Pill consider themselves as “normal individuals”, as opposed to people who believe that they have been sold a lie. As it has been mentioned earlier in this essay, the non-Red Pillers(more apt) have obtained the understanding of the Red Pill from MGTOW. MGTOW came into existence, in brief, when men decided to say no to women for LTRs who “explored” their options a lot during their youth. It was also fuelled by the fact that most men have been burned by the divorce laws in multiple parts of the world, most men’s lives have been ruined by false sexual harassment allegations where men decided not to deal with women anymore.

Instead of trying to understand the cause, the non-Red Pillers believed that men possessing that understanding are impractical, insecure, and commitment-phobic. The actual message was lost in translation since most of the points of the Red Pill community were treated as anecdotal theories. Very few individuals from the other side were even willing to listen to the stories of those men, which have been highlighted extremely well in the 2016 documentary, “The Red Pill”. In the TEDx talk, Cassie Jaye, the director, accepts that she was skeptical at first, even while listening to these men who were separated from their children(source).

Apart from that most non-Red Pillers do not believe any of the points put forth by the Red Pill community when it comes to dating advice. Some examples include:

  • SMV is a lie and doesn’t exist
  • Hypergamy isn’t real
  • Men and women behave the same way
  • A woman’s past doesn’t matter

The counterpoints provided by the RP community are outrightly disregarded even when presented with evidence. Most common replies include, “you are mad because you can’t get women” or “be better, stop complaining”.

Wrapping up

The noticeable thing about the objective and absolute truth, which is represented by the Red Pill in “The Matrix” is it comes to those who seek it. An individual who is willing to be voluntarily skeptical about what they already know and challenge the intellect of the general public will only be able to find the Red Pill. So, who is motivated enough to do that? How does someone muster enough courage to go seek the truth that has the potential to turn your perception of reality upside down?

For starters, if one continues to live their life according to someone else’s truth or a lie, one will eventually see the plot holes. Men who once believed that their boss was their best friend and acted accordingly were not the recipients of the next promotion. Men who believed that their wife is with them because of their personality and not money have lost their possessions and more importantly their children.

What should a Red-Piller do?

Continue this exact course of action and. Engage in qualitative debates where ideas are shared and discussed with tangible evidence that supports them. But be careful because telling the truth to someone who is still “plugged and happy” will be met with ridicule. As it was explained by “Cypher” in “The Matrix”, “Ignorance is bliss”, it is only natural that the most predictable reaction to the absolute truth is denial(source). Why not avoid pain by chasing expedient pleasure?

I know many individuals will attempt to shred the content of this post by sarcastically comparing me to philosophers and thinkers and that’s okay. Everyone must believe and live by the truth that they believe in. However, I still encourage the Blue Pillers of the non-Red Pillers to share their thoughts with tangible evidence from verifiable sources. The Blue Pill and the Red Pill are two versions of the truth on the same axis. The difference is the Blue Pill writes axioms based on the perception and the Red Pill focuses on the cause.

What incident pushed you to seek the Red Pill?