The Red Pill and The Blue Pill

(From the movie The Matrix, 1999)

The not-so-obvious reason for my post today is to set the record straight about my stance on the subject of interpersonal relationships that may easily be misconstrued with the ideology I’m about to explain to my readers and then subsequently criticize this ideology for the idiocy it represents.

“Red Pill/Blue Pill” philosophy started out as a political meme inspired by “Red States and Blue States” (Republican and Democrat parties, respectively) and more ostensibly by the 1999 film The Matrix to illustrate how wholly subscribing to conservative ideology (or wholly supporting the Republican Party), constitutes “taking the red pill” and waking up from The Matrix of liberal ideology to see “the truth” of conservatism vs the lies of liberalism.

This theme has since been adopted by “Red Pill” online communities collectively known as “The Manosphere”. According to RationalWiki, the Manosphere is a loose network of websites, blogs, and online forums that promote a particular version of masculinity that includes many subgroups, such as incels (involuntarily celibates), pick-up artists (PUAs), MGTOWs (Men Going Their Own Way), and just “red pilled” men in general (RationalWiki.com 2019).

This description of the so-called Manosphere seems innocuous enough on the surface until you dig just a tad deeper and realize just how much these groups tend to promote the most pervasive and perverse permutations of misogyny, racism, sexism, and even anti-Semitism that you will find anywhere on the internet.

The Manosphere is not all misogynistic, sexist, and racist. Many of its more important thinkers (and I use the term “thinkers” rather loosely) actually offer their adherents and followers some rather sage advice. One of those preeminent thinkers is a guy who’s book I have read and who’s work I have cited from time to time on this blog, one Mr. Rollo Tomassi, author of the book The Rational Male with a blog by the same name (the blog preceded the book).

NOTE: This blog’s name was not inspired by Mr. Tomassi’s blog name or book. Read my introductory post.

I am of the opinion that Mr. Tomassi is neither misogynistic or sexist and while I don’t agree with everything he says or writes, he makes some very valid and powerful points about male/female interpersonal relationships.

However, like many gurus of the Manosphere, Tomassi does make a profit off of promoting some things that can be construed as misogynistic, or at the least, disparaging towards women. That he claims to be happily married makes some of the things he’s says and writes a bit hypocritical, but unlike the vast majority of men in the Manosphere, I know how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Therein lies the problem with the Manosphere…

The Manosphere as a community is really a juvenile online boys’ club that does a poor job of being the male response to the feminist movement. What they actually succeed in accomplishing is radicalizing rudderless young men and hapless older men who are frustrated and jaded about women in particular and their own lives in general. The legitimate message of Rollo Tomassi and others like him to engage in self-improvement and build self-worth and value is lost in a sea of discontent exploited by a more nefarious element in the Manosphere.

As RationalWiki points out, it is particularly ironic and hilarious that a misogynistic, racist, and sexist pseudo-movement would adopt the terminology of a film created, written and produced by two transgendered women about a woman and a black man who convince a white man to fight against oppression (RationalWiki.com 2019).

For the record, I don’t want my views on interpersonal relationships construed with the tripe the Manosphere spews. I’m all about enlightening, inspiring, and educating my audience. Not indoctrinating them to hate.

-The Rational Ram