In the 1999 science fiction film, The Matrix, hacker Neo is faced with a decision. Resistance fighter Morpheus presents him with two pills. If Neo swallows the blue one, everything will remain the same — a comfortable life in a fantasy world. If he swallows the red pill, he will see “true reality” — a dystopian world in which humans are enslaved by machines. Neo chooses the red pill, which brings knowledge, but also pain, loss and struggle.
Users in online forums have been employing this metaphor since the early 2000s. First among self-proclaimed “pick-up artists,” who propagated the conquest of women via questionable techniques, and later among US men’s rights activists. This gave rise to the “,” various digital arenas in which misogyny, conspiracy theories, and self-optimization ideals have merged. Common claims on these platforms include the allegation that has taken over society to keep men down, or that gender roles are biologically determined and women are supposedly “programmed” to long for dominant, physically superior men — even as they devalue or aim to control them.
A US export
The is considered to be the ideological center of this subculture. It was there that red pill forums gave rise to “incel” culture. Incel stands for “involuntary celibate,” and refers to digital communities of men who identify with this term and interpret it as discrimination.
Their activities have been the focus of research since at least 2014, when the Isla Vista shooting left six people dead. The perpetrator left behind a manifesto and videos in which he outlined his misogyny and hatred of sexually successful men. Many of these themes, from complaints about women’s superficiality to self-portrayal as incels, remain associated with the red pill scene today.
Figures such as Andrew Tate show how strongly this subculture has become intertwined with the mainstream. The British-American former kickboxer has gained millions of social media followers with his musings about male dominance. He is also now . The fact that conservative commentators on US broadcaster Fox News use the term “red-pilled” in the same way as celebrities such as Elon Musk or Kanye West shows how the movement’s concepts have seeped into political language.
Digital dissemination
The mechanisms of the social media platforms themselves plays a special role in this trend. Algorithms used by YouTube and TikTok reward provocative content, including anti-feminist rhetoric. Many red pill influencers deliberately exploit this system by combining self-improvement tips with misogynistic messages, allowing them to reach a young audience far beyond the scope of their scene.
In Germany, these concepts gained visibility on YouTube and Instagram around 2019. Fitness and business influencers such as Karl Ess picked up on terms and narratives from the red pill scene — often under the guise of self-optimization and advice on achieving success.
Meanwhile, research such as the Leipzig Authoritarianism Study 2024 points to a growing prevalence of anti-feminist attitudes in German culture. According to the study, a quarter of German society holds a consistently anti-feminist worldview. Such attitudes often form a bridge to extremist milieus in which anti-feminist ideology is central.
In in 2019, for example, a right-wing extremist murdered two people after attempting to break into a synagogue. Investigation revealed how the attacker’s ideology was informed by red pill and incel content merged with right-wing extremist conspiracy narratives in online forums.
Worldwide appeal
Red pill ideology has become a global phenomenon. In , for example, influencer Thiago Schutz, known as “Coach do Campari,” mimicked Andrew Tate to gain hundreds of thousands of followers before making headlines with threats against an actress.
Researchers point to structural issues that may have contributed to his rise. Since 2010, debates on gender equality in Brazil have become increasingly politicized and pushed out of schools. Formal educational offerings have increasingly been replaced by influencers and conservatives who link red pill content with traditional moral values.
Culturally adaptive concepts
The red pill movement has also proven to be diverse and regionally adaptive. University of Bielefeld researcher Vildan Aytekin has been following Muslim incels known as “Mincels.” In Muslim societies, Western-influenced hierarchies of attractiveness are replaced by concepts of “spirituality and masculinity,” she says.
Femininity is idealized, not to create equality, but to legitimize traditional roles on religious grounds. “The causes of many of the frustrations expressed in the incel sphere are attributed here to a ‘misguided’ Western lifestyle, which is strongly influenced by hedonism and nihilism,” said Aytekin.
A 2022 study by Sahar Ghumkhor and Hizer Mir in the journal ReOrient also describes how a Muslim manosphere has emerged. Examples include figures such as online preacher Daniel Haqiqatjou and author Nabeel Aziz, who flirt with terms such as “white Shariah.” They combine anti-feminist narratives with religious arguments, a mix of Western subcultures and traditionalist currents in Islam.
Feeding on male insecurity
But how relevant is the red pill scene, really? Mainly limited to online forums, the scope is likely relatively minor. But the codes and memes have seeped into the mainstream, says Brigitte Temel, who researches incels and the manosphere at Vienna’s Institute for Conflict Research. “Many young people are familiar with the terms,” she says, adding that Austrian counseling centers that focus on cults are also reporting a growing need in this area. Still, it remains difficult to measure the scene’s qualitative influence.
Studies suggest that the movement is not so much gaining new followers as it is bundling and amplifying existing resentments. The red pill metaphor provides a simple narrative that translates personal frustrations into a seemingly greater social truth. In addition to the ideological component, economic interests also play a role for influencers and coaches, as Temel explains: “They take money from the pockets of insecure men.”
This article was originally written in German.
The post Taking the ‘red pill’: From meme to political ideology appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
