Entitled and Vulnerable: Young men and the Red Pill Movement
Picture this… the year is 2024 and you are a twenty year old male. You attended an all-boys, state secondary school where you never really fit in, but you managed to make some friends. In recent years however, you have witnessed these friends swallowing the dreaded red pill and falling down the rabbit hole of toxic masculinity, raging misogyny, and anti-feminism. You have tried to convince them otherwise, to help them see through the lies spread by the movement, but to no avail.
Unfortunately, this is the case for me and many other young men. We have stood helpless and confused amongst the chaos of modern day masculinity. It’s always the same story. You sit down with an old friend or send them a message to catch up, and before you know it, they’re telling you that money is everything, that men cannot be friends with women, that the media matrix generates fake victims of sexual assault because they’re out to get precious king Andrew Tate. I wish I was exaggerating, but all of these things have been said to me by red-pilled ex friends.
So what is the Red Pill?
The origins of the movement lie in the men’s rights movements of the 1970s, who believed there was a connection between problems faced by men and growing feminist attitudes and advancements in female empowerment. It is safe to say that in fifty years, these attitudes have not changed much. Young men today continue to blame feminism for their shortcomings.
The red-pill name, inspired by 1999 film The Matrix, is used to reference the moment an individual comes to realise that the gender roles and social expectations they abide to are not mutually beneficial, but actually in place solely for female benefit. Young men feel angry and let down because life is supposedly stacked against them. They cannot stand the fact that the world isn’t what was promised to them in the problematic romantic comedy films they grew up watching. Surprise surprise boys… women don’t fall lovingly and helplessly into your arms after a simple hello. The truth is that women owe you absolutely nothing, and adopting some kind of forceful, hyper-masculine persona will neither make you any more appealing to them nor make you any more of a quote on quote ‘real man’.
Much of the red-pilled ideology is extremely paranoid. These men who think they see through all of society’s lies use online discourse spaces such as reddit threads to share hateful comments about women and ideologies that do not align with their own. Red Pill specific jargon is often used to communicate these ideas. For example, Goolag refers to Google being a biased left wing institution; and Femoids, is used to describe women in a sub-human manner.
Red Pillers also openly criticise men who defend feminist ideas. They believe these men to be passive recipients of the mainstream narrative, and refer to them as blue-pilled normies. In red pillers’ eyes, these men are settlers, almost sick, and in need of superior red pill intellect to help them realise the so called truth
The Black Pill
In recent years, the red-pilled agenda has evolved into a more nihilistic state. Many men believe the entire situation to be a lost cause, and that only a full systemic change will help men like them achieve any kind of successful sexual relationship with a woman. Individual attempts are not good enough, as in their minds, physical features are a genetic gamble and women place far too much emphasis on them when choosing a partner.
Black pillers are so far in the deep end of their self-pity that within their community, suicide is presented as a necessary step to prove how serious the circumstances are. If they are not taken seriously then they can become sacrificial examples of martyrdom, in the hope that the rest of society will see this as reason to adapt to their male supremacist ideologies.
Final thoughts
It is both infuriating and heartbreaking to see these young men, men you once considered friends, become so twisted by such hateful ideas and messages. It is undeniable that we are living through a crisis of masculinity. Yes, we have progressed to a stage where it is largely acceptable for men not to embody the stiff upper lip mentality of stereotypical masculinity, but we clearly still have so far to go. Red-pilled men are victimising themselves to a dangerous extent, and it is benefiting no one.
To all the young men out there, please check yourself and your friends for signs of the red pill ideology. If you find any, stamp them out, and educate yourselves on how harmful a movement and mindset it is. We can help each other avoid its influences; there is still hope.
Words by Tom Pilkington