100,000

I decided to sit down with a glass of wine this evening and reflect on the past two years, and our experiences here on the red pill. While most sub-reddits are lighthearted and fun in nature, this one takes a more serious tone and purpose, and the implications of our conclusions are far reaching and scare real mainstream establishments.

It’s incredible that what we’re doing - just looking for and sharing information - is so dangerous and damaging to the status quo, that we actually ruffle feathers. When I took over TRP with under a thousand subscribers, I expected to be ignored, perhaps made fun of a bit. But I did not expect what we have experienced- mainstream attention in a campaign against us of fear, shame, and censorship.

Maybe I’m a bit drunk, but at 100,000 users I think it’s fair to excuse me as I raise my glass and share some of my emotions with you guys because, fuck, this has been the most incredible ride of my life. Not only have I found a group of likeminded individuals, but we have helped others find belonging as well. And that’s something that our culture has severely lacked- belonging for men: A place for men to be among peers and friends, comrades, people to connect with. Some have been luckier than others. I counted myself among the unlucky until now.

I think it’s important to take a moment to reflect on the improvements we’ve made as people – as men – because sometimes with the small increments it’s difficult to really realize where we might have been five years ago (or even two years ago). I find myself worrying about very small details today that are the subtlest of nuances of game that I would never have even understood or believed a few years back. Today I look at these hurdles as mountains, but they are mere street curbs compared to the real mountain of improvement that stood before me when I began my journey.

And, excuse me for being sentimental, but you’ve all been there doing the same with me. It really strikes me as the most incredible experience to know that we’ve reached out and touched the lives of other men, knowing that their lives may be improving because they found us. Knowing that we are improving people’s lives, despite the chagrin of the established culture, really fucking hits me deep. I haven’t cried in over a decade, but I might shed a damn tear tonight because it’s beautiful what we’ve accomplished.

I want to share a little about myself before the red pill started, and before I discovered the manosphere in general. I was just out of a relationship where I honestly wondered to myself what the point of continuing was. I wondered what three years meant if it could be thrown away in days. I was ego invested in this relationship, it was my identity.

I suspect (and I’m sure there are some blue pillers who will have a hay-day with this) that the people who have found their way here were smarter than average, but severely mislead. I say that because I truly believe it takes an uncommon level of intelligence to really look inside and realize that the source of a problem may lie within. It’s something that I consider daily, and I wonder if most people I’ve met will ever consider it even once in their lives. People tend to spend a huge amount of mental cycles avoiding such a question.

My experience was being logical and analytical. I wanted things to make sense, but I found myself alienated. Not only by women and romantic interests, but also by friends and family. Wondering why it was that a strict adherence to logic and rationality would lead to such rifts in my relationships, I began to wonder if perhaps I was destined to live the rest of my life alone. I felt alone, like there was nothing in this life for me. I did things the right way, the way they were supposed to be done, and I was not rewarded like I expected. Instead I discovered that everybody around me was stupid. They were dumb. They did not follow the rules. Why the hell were they so intent on following nonsense such as emotions? Why didn’t they control their reactions to things? Why were they lead astray by lies and misconceptions? And why was I unsuccessful at negotiating their desires?

I wouldn’t realize for years to come what I was witnessing could be explained by an economist. You have to follow the money. In this case, the money was self-interest. I eventually discovered that people will follow exactly what they’ve been evolutionarily driven to do. And sometimes that means that no matter how many promises you or they make, no matter how much sense commitments and honor makes to try- people will follow what makes them happy. (And worthy of note, most people don’t know what it is that makes them happy, so they follow the short term happiness, even to the detriment of long term happiness.)

It’s an eye-opening experience to realize that rather than being the smartest person in the room, I was likely the most duped idiot there. Expecting a system of laws that were never enforced, I actually had the gull to get self righteous and pissed when nobody abided by it. How fucking fruitless that effort would be.

I think my story is not unique. I think that we’re here because of a similar past.

There’s an interesting group called purplepilldebate, and I want to speak about that for a minute.

A common topic that they focus on is that the conclusions that we arrive at should be common knowledge and that few people should ever be as mislead as we were.

I really do wonder how it is that I was lead so far astray, I really don’t know. It’s hard to think of myself as a thinking, breathing individual then, when I now realize how wrong my conclusions were then. Clearly I am smart enough today to come to better conclusions. The raw materials were there waiting to be molded into the person I would become. But, nevertheless, there I was among the stupid. The people purplepilldebate refuses to accept exists: the feminine-conditioned men who did not know how to be men.

But we do exist. And we’re here. And we’re improving.

This is what the opposition will do when they find themselves outreasoned. They will adopt your premises and act as though they were there with you all along, and that you’re nuts for thinking otherwise. It’s just your misdirected conclusion that they disagree with. But they agreed with everything else all along!

That’s one hella bunch of gaslighting in my opinion.

There are a few comments I want to make about purplepilldebate, and our community, as we continue past 100,000 subscribers and into the future.

Purplepilldebate might be an interesting read, and certainly a great place for outrage porn if you’re an addict. But the fact is, one thing that they focus on is a way to tone down red pill discussion to give it more mass appeal. They want to normalize red pill ideas.

One common trope I hear there is “the red pill doesn’t have the monopoly on the advice, work out, dress well, and improve your personality.”

The point they’re trying to make is that you can take this very simple advice and probably improve your standing, so there’s no real reason to buy into the “hate-group” of the red pill. You can be just as successful, really, this advice has always been around! Everybody knows it! We’ve always advocated these things!

This is an interesting thing they’re doing. They’re buying the advice because there’s no real logical argument against its effectiveness. It really does work. Women like swole, fit, confident guys. But there’s method to the normalization and tempering tactic. They aren’t just well-meaning folks who want you to avoid the hate-trap of TRP. They want to make sure you never fall into the understanding behind why these things work.

Originally the campaign against men included denying that stoicism and fitness were effective with women. They tried to convince a generation of boys that what women really wanted was a dude who shared his feelings and was able to cry on her shoulder. MAKE NO MISTAKE, THIS IS WHAT SOCIETY TAUGHT BOYS. That the purple pill tries to deny it now, telling us that “get fit and confident” has always been a no-brainer is disingenuous. Anybody watching a late 80’s or 90’s movie can disprove this entirely. This has not been the truth.

They want to co-opt the inarguable parts of our argument to continue the campaign against what really scares them: understanding and truth about female sexual strategy.

There are some well-reasoned red pillers on the purple pill subreddit who tend to cave to these pressures nevertheless, and I see them now taking a foothold on our main subreddit. I have decided to make a comment on it, and explain our moderating position regarding them moving forward:

The fact is this: our edge is our advantage. There is no point to trying to normalize with political correctness. It is a fool’s errand.

There are enough people trying to make peace with the public narrative saying that red pill advice is good enough if only there wasn’t so much anger or hate. If only we could just be more … what’s the term? Socially acceptable?

This is what the moderates are looking for- they want us to tone it down. Why can’t we preach good dating advice and drop the anger and hatred?

In fact, even members here who I do not recognize as long-standing members comment on how there’s so much anger and how it used to be good but gosh there’s so much darn hatred and anger now.

The fact is, our edge- our political incorrectness- is the only thing keeping us what we are: a community for like-minded men. Once we adopt a politically correct frame (which is what purple pill is attempting, and what our concern trolls are advocating), we have abandoned our advantage of being a male space that is open to like-minded individuals who can discuss what matters to men.

I think a lot of people reading this might be wondering- why is it that dropping some of the anger and speech that is deemed “hatred” could be bad? Wouldn’t it help to communicate our message better if it were easier to stomach?

When we adopt a more politically correct format, something very important is taking place: we are tempering our speech to satisfy the feminine imperative; that is to say: we are modifying ourselves to please women- to gain female approval. And as our subject matter happens to be one that women tend not to approve of, you can only imagine the effect that might have on our subject matter if we were to temper ourselves to appease them.

We will not be bending to appease women, the feminine imperative, or popular culture. This has always been the case, and always will be.

So as a comment to a recent influx of statements regarding the “anger stage” or new members ruining things because they’re undereducated or angry- I say this: We embrace the anger, we embrace the new people, we embrace the unwanted, the unsightly, the incorrect.

I need’nt state that at one point every member here was new, and many had dumb questions or some anger to work out. We’ve all been there.

So as of this point forward, our moderation team will not look kindly to anybody being disparaging towards the fact that new people might exist, that we have an “influx” of new people clogging things up with their new questions and feelings.

I liken it to going to the gym. After a good set, my muscles tend to ache. It’s sometimes frustrating and difficult to do normal tasks when my muscles hurt, or I can’t fully extend my arms. But the one thing I know is this: The pain indicates gain. We cannot get gain without pain. And fuck any of you righteous motherfuckers who think they’re not responsible to help educate and assist new members. If you’ve gained any insight or help from TRP at all, you owe it to new members to help them with the same.

Likewise my message to new comers is not to flood us with inane posts or bullshit. If you think you have a beginner question, it’s because it is, and we don’t need to hear it. Check our sidebar, and read for another month. Check /r/asktrp. Do what what you can to teach yourself before joining in conversation.

Anyhow, I’ve really enjoyed the past two years, and it’s incredible that we’ve reached 100,000 subscribers. I can’t wait to see what the next two years bring, and to see how many new ideas, insights and understandings we uncover. As always we will continue to embrace the edge and make this a place for exclusively male communication and comradery.

Welcome new subscribers, and congrats to existing users. This is a huge milestone and I can say honestly that I could not have gotten where I am today without all of you. I hope that what we’ve been able to do here has helped you as well.

I’m proud to call you my brothers.

RPS