Before we get too deep into this, we should start by defining some terms.
The Red Pill is, for all intents and purposes, what happens when the pick-up community decides that it hates women. The name derives from the scene in the Matrix where Morpheus offers Neo the choice: he can take the red pill and wake up from The Matrix and live in the real world, or he can take the blue pill and forget ever knowing that the Matrix is an illusion.
“Take the red pill and spend a LOT of time yelling on the Internet.”
Where the Wachowskis intended the scene to be a metaphor for the Buddha receiving enlightenment and no longer being bound by worldly concerns, to the Red Pill philosophy, it means “the recognition and awareness of the way that feminism, feminists and their white-knight enablers affect society.” It’s a neat rhetorical trick – trying to claim both the identity of a persecuted minority (cisgendered, hetero men) while also proclaiming themselves inherently superior to the “blue-pillers”, white knights and “betas” because they see the truth: that they’re supposed to treat women like shit.
The Red Pill philosophy is heavily influenced by the Neil Strauss’s The Game and the Mystery Method school of pick-up; scroll through the field reports on the Red Pill subreddit and you’ll find it festooned with PUA jargon like “DHV” (demonstration of higher value”), AMOG (“alpha male of group”) and shit tests. Much of the Red Pill concept of “game” is focused on emotional manipulation and coercion. One of the key tenets of the Red Pill philosophy is that women are instinctively hypergamous – that they only date men of “superior” status and are quite literally incapable of loving men unconditionally – and thus men must be as “alpha” as possible at all times. Of course, because women are also incapable of logic and reason and only respond to emotions, it’s only fair for men to play upon their psyches in order to get their way. One of the most popular ways of doing this is known as “dread” game – deliberately making your girlfriend fear your dumping her or breaking up with her. Various ways of inducing “dread” include:
- Not answering her calls for a week
- Hitting on her friends (in a plausibly deniable way)
- Flirt with other women in front of her
- Running extremely hot and cold – being incredibly romantic one day and incredibly distant for three days after
If this sounds suspiciously like “emotional abuse”… well, that’s because it is. Much of the Red Pill philosophy is about regaining the upper hand because women somehow unfairly control the sexual marketplace. Interestingly though, only some women can control it as, in the Red Pill philosophy, women are only of worth from the ages of 16 to 25; afterwards they hit “The Wall”. From the Red Pill subreddit:
The point in a woman’s life where her ego and self-assessed view of her sexual market value exceed her actual sexual market value; the beginning of the decline. Usually occurs as a wake-up shock to women when they realize that their power over men was temporary and that their looks are fading. This usually results with first denial and then a sudden change in priority towards looking for a husband. Even after hitting the wall, many women will squander a few more precious years testing her SMV with alphas to double-check, hoping her perceived decline was a fluke, this will make her even more bitter when she finally has to settle for a worse-beta than she could’ve gotten before because of squandering her youth.
If this makes you scratch your head and wonder how a woman can control men through access to sex when she has such a limited window to work, then you’re not alone. The Red Pill philosophy isn’t big on internal consistency. After all, Red Pill-ers want to fuck the hottest women, yet these women are also the ones who are, in their words, “on the cock carousel”; so they want to fuck hot women and then turn around and shame the same women for fucking them. Women manipulate men, but men should apply dread game to get laid. They decry women for spinning multiple plates – RP jargon for “keeping men on the hook” – while also insisting that only betas settle down and alphas have harems. Women are manipulative and Machiavellian, forever plotting to fuck alphas and use betas but are also incapable of logic or rational thinking and instead rely on the “rationalization hamster” in order to settle cognitive dissonance.
Far be it from me to suggest that perhaps said Red Pillers have their own issues with cognitive dissonance, but hey, if the exercise wheel fits…
“Life ain’t nothin’ but bitches and tricks, son.”
“♬ In Just Seven Days, I Can Make You A Man ♪”
The appeal of the Red Pill ethos is simple; it’s all about taking someone who feels they have little power and convincing them that they have the only way to get power.
Let’s be honest: dating can be scary. You’re deliberately making yourself vulnerable to another person. When you get rejected, it can feel as though you are being judged on your entire existence. Many men, especially those who are socially inexperienced or just plain awkward, see each rejection as unfair or unnecessarily cruel; they believe that they should be given a chance to prove their desirability. Others feel that the universe has stacked the deck against them; only certain men are able to get women and this is inherently not fair.
“You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is.”
In the Red Pill world, it’s true: only certain men get laid: alpha males, According to the Red Pill philosophy, 20% of the men fuck 80% of the women. Don’t worry about the fact that this is mathematically impossible, it feels true and that’s the important part. So when someone is feeling like he’s been cheated by life, that it’s unfair that other people have an easier time getting dates or getting laid, the Red Pill ethos is there to validate those feelings. “You’re right,” says the Red Pill community, “It is unfair. You’re being denied something that is rightfully yours. You should take it back!”
It’s a classic recruitment technique, one used by hate groups for centuries: prey on someone’s insecurities and fears. Tell them that they’ve been wronged and then tell them “this is how you get to be strong.” Give them an enemy and tell them “this is why things are so bad for you. They’ve hurt you. They’ve wronged you. Don’t you want power over them?” They offer secret knowledge, helping you “wake up to see the real world”, unlike all those blue pill manginas. By being a Red Pill man, you’re proving yourself superior to others. You know things that other people don’t. You’re special. Not like those other people. The world of the Red Pill is one of “us vs. them”. An alpha fucks, a beta bucks, bro. Other guys are manginas, average frustrated chumps (because you’re not average or a chump, bro) or “white knights” – poor, deluded men who think that being nice to women will get them laid. Not like you, Red Pill devotee; you know the truth.
To someone who’s always felt like they lack control or who has low self-esteem, being told “no, you’re a god among insects” is intoxicating. You were weak, but now you’re strong. You’ve been given the secret of being Alpha – now you can be one of the guys who gets the women instead of the guy getting used. They’ll back it up with pseudo-science and evo-psych that sounds legit – after all, it’s confirming what you already believe. Don’t worry that “alpha” and “beta” doesn’t actually exist in nature; that’s just white knights trying to Nice Guy their way to pussy. Don’t worry that all you’re doing is masking insecurities instead of actually addressing your issues. Do alpha male shit, get pussy, bro!
But the Red Pill philosophy does more than offer the illusion of strength. It offers you an enemy to get revenge on.
“ANTI-SEX JUSTIFIES MY HATE!”
The dark side1 of the Red Pill is that it’s not about being a better man; it’s about hating on women. If you look at the statement of principles on /r/TheRedPill, you may notice something: there’s nothing in there about men. It’s all about how awful women are, not about how to be a better man; you get 19 bullet points about how women are the villain before you get to whinging about how much it sucks to be male in this world. Moreover, when you go through the Red Pill subreddit, you’ll find plenty on why women are awful, why you should never date American women, how women are cheating men out of their wealth, why women are shit and where a woman’s true value lies. You’ll see lay reports explaining why the best thing you can do is make a woman fear for the state of your relationship.
You aren’t going to see anything about, say, how to be a better father. Nothing about being a pillar of your community. Nothing about addressing issues like the rape crisis in the military, the demonization of African-American men or the demasculinization of Indian and Southeast Asian men. Just reasons why women are bitches and why The Red Pill is the Light, The Truth and the Way.
“See son? Says it right here: Feminism is a doctrine built on the pre-supposition of victimhood of women.”
And there’s a reason for that. As long as you have an enemy, you have someone to hate. As long as you have an enemy, you have someone to blame. And as long as you have someone to blame, you have a justification for hurting them. And let’s be honest: when you’re bitter about the fact that women don’t like you, there’s a part of you that relishes the idea of making them pay for it. Most of us recognize that impulse for what it is: a little dark whim born out of anger that quickly passes. But part of the appeal of the Red Pill is that it stokes that anger. It encourages you to feel it, to indulge in it. Women are inferior to you – why do you let them treat you like shit? It’s ok to abuse her; secretly, she really likes it. It’s ok to take what you want – you’re a man, you’re an alpha and this is what alphas do.
Of course, when you take that logic to its natural ends, you end up with people laughing over date rape accusations and advocating for domestic abuse as a relationship maintenance technique and why it’s ok to smack a woman around.
