Ganesh, Bharath. The Ungovernability of Digital Hate Culture. Journal of International Affairs. 19 December 2018, 71 (2): 30–49. Despite their tenuous coalitions and the fragmentation and fracturing that many observers of the 「alt-right」 have identified, digital hate culture does have a 「common spirit」 that is based on the tropes of the Red Pill and white genocide. ... Often used as a reference to a state of mind, the sense of being 「red-pilled」 in the context of digital hate culture refers to the idea that leftist political ideologies (which, for the purveyors of hate refers to the entire spectrum of feminists, Marxists, socialists, and liberals) have deluded the population and conspired to destroy Western civilization and culture.
Cunha, Darlena. Red pills and dog whistles: It is more than 'just the internet'. Aljazeera. September 6, 2020 [March 17, 2023]. 'You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe,' Laurence Fishburne’s character Morpheus tells Neo. 'You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.' The hero takes the red pill, which is meaningful to these groups who feel the world has mistreated them. Gathering in online echo chambers, they feel like heroes for seeing the world for what it is, for being brave enough to handle it and strong enough to show others. Little do they realise that their red pill of truth often leads them down a path of delusion, the very thing they think they are rallying the rest of the world against. ... They hang out on YouTube or in internet forums and weave a web of conspiracy theory around themselves, in which they are the ultimate victims, and their scapegoats some unlikely victors in the game of life – groups typically marginalised by society: Jewish people, Black people, other people of colour, and, of course, women.
Lewis, Becca; Marwick, Alice. Taking the Red Pill: Ideological Motivations for Spreading Online Disinformation.(PDF). University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication. December 2017. As group members are radicalized – a process they refer to as 「redpilling」 – their ideologies and distrust of the media feed on each other and ultimately inform a broader shift in their understanding of reality and veracity. As a result, they may view highly ideological and factually incorrect information as truthful, thus complicating understandings of disinformation.
