About 43% of Americans believe that COVID-19 “came out naturally,” and about three in ten think it was made in a lab and it leaked. This is a good example of a red pill versus a blue pill position.

When talking about the pandemic and Big Pharma, one curious little phrase keeps showing up: blue pill. But what does it really mean? Hint: you won't find the answer in your grandpa’s medicine cabinet.

What’s a Blue Pill?

A blue pill is a state of mind in which you decide to accept things as they are, and you don't challenge the existing narratives. When you take the blue pill, you're giving up your power to think critically. In the West, being blue pilled is the default state of mind. Its counterpart is the red pill.

The red pill and blue pill are two metaphoric terms to represent the choice between remaining blissfully ignorant about something (taking the blue pill) or learning an unsettling or life-changing truth about it (taking the red pill).

For example, it’s clearly evident that those who innocently accepted the imposed narrative about COVID-19 took the blue pill (and the vax). Meanwhile, those who “took the red pill” dared to ask questions, rejected the rules, and sought bodily autonomy over groundless mandates. 

In short, the blue pig is synonymous with being a sheep, maybe opposite to being a Sigma male. All it takes is one good bite of the red pill.

Where did Blue Pill Come From?

The blue pill and the red pill first appeared in the 1990 film Total Recall, but it became popular thanks to the 1999 blockbuster The Matrix. In Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character is faced with the choice to snap out of a simulated reality, or blissfully ignore it. Arnold's character is offered a red pill to break out from a fabricated, and quite wonderful, state of mind.

The same happens in The Matrix, except that maybe this movie’s less goofy script was more effective at making the term stick. In the now-iconic scene, the protagonist Neo (starring Keanu Reeves) is offered a choice: take the red pill and awaken to a harsh, inconvenient truth that the world is a simulation, or take the blue pill and remain comfortably numb in a government-approved illusion.

Fast-forward to today, the internet appropriated these terms to differentiate the free-thinkers from the sheep, and the rest is history.

Blue vs. red pill

In modern culture, the pills have taken on broader meanings: the blue pill represents believing the democratic mainstream and progressive liberal narrative without question, while the red pill represents questioning this narrative and finding one's own way.

If you take the red pill in the United States, you realize that not everything is what the mainstream says it is. You see the truth in politics and society: how the system wants to instigate the “woke” doctrine, the endangerment of the nuclear family, the liberal control of the media, Big Pharma… the list could go on. Being redpilled has become a badge of honor for those who have the guts to question the narrative.

In contrast, blue-pilled Americans guzzle down the Kool-Aid of the liberal story. It means swallowing whatever the media, academia, or bureaucrats feed you—no critical thinking required.

The metaphor resonates with so many internet users that the manosphere has also added the pills to their own books of law. The manosphere comprises the websites and blogs of online misogynist groups, incels, and the MGTOWs. Users here use the concept of redpill to describe the men "awakened" (like Neo in The Matrix) to how feminists have usurped the means of power. Meanwhile, whipped men who do not accept this reality are bullied as bluepilled.

It is likely nothing more than men blaming their lack of sexual success on somebody else (they should try showering—it does wonders). But since they also question how government experts who can’t define “woman” are still somehow trusted to give out medicines, redefine biology, and reset society, maybe the manoshpere is headed in a somewhat-correct direction. 

Ultimately, the blue pill is a state of mind. It says, “trust the experts,” even if the experts were wrong last week, again this week, and are already apologizing for next week. Of course, critics love to say that being redpilled means being a conspiranoic lunatic. While some people do go too far, let’s be honest: if simply questioning government lockdowns, corporate media, or childhood vaccines makes you a conspiracy theorist—pass the tinfoil, friend.

So, the next time someone asks if you’d like a taste of blue, smile politely and say, “No thanks. I prefer my reality shaken, not stirred.”