The concept of red and blue pills has since been widely used as a political metaphor, especially among right libertarians and conservatives in the United States, where “taking the red pill” or being “red-pilled” means becoming aware of the political biases inherent in society, including in the mainstream media, and becoming an independent thinker; while “taking the blue pill” or being “blue-pilled” means unquestioningly accepting these supposed biases.
The concept is also used among leftists to refer to members of the alt-right and others who subscribe to extremist right wing beliefs or conspiracy theories.
Most people I know (mostly from conversations I’ve had online) who’ve taken the red pill have damaged their lives by saying things that damage their most important relationships — such as with family, friends, community, work, and educational institution.
The road to recovery from the red pill, it seems to me, is to seek to have the best possible relations with everyone in your life. If you make connection your goal, you’ll develop healthy habits that will help you along a good path. You don’t have to change your mind about politics. You just learn you can’t talk about politics with everyone.
The biggest reason that many people blow up their lives after taking the red pill is that they feel an overwhelming need to hurt people. Hurt people hurt people. So hurt people who take the red pill use this new information to cut down other people who then retaliate against them. People who are OK with themselves and don’t feel a need to go around hurting people with their new insights don’t tend to blow up their lives.
It helps to expose yourself to multiple points of view from the most profound advocates, and to learn that you aren’t so smart after all, and it is not your role to go around delivering divine karma.
For those who’ve taken the red pill and embraced absurd conspiracy theories such as that the Jews are responsible for most of the evil in the world, that Covid vaccines are an evil plot to render much of humanity sterile, that the U.S. government blew up the twin towers on 9-11, I’ve never seen anyone recover from that.
