Hey there, I really don't actually like doing this, but I guess it's something a little bit inevitable and I need to nip it in the bud, because what I'm talking about today is one of the shittier things to have come out of reddit and it's growing popularity among disenfranchised young men is incredibly concerning. To get in front of a criticism that I know will arise, either from members on site who I'm not familiar with or from members off site, yes, I do care, significantly about what happens to the community on Hubski. I am not always the most active, but it's a good community to be part of, and I want it to stay free from exploitative ideologies.
The best way to do that is to tell everyone about The Red Pill and what it actually stands for. But first, let me further preface this little rant and mild investigation.
I am an old hand at the internet. I have been on a forum since I was 11. I have interacted with hundreds if not thousands of people through forums and discussion sites, I've had my philosophies broken down and rebuilt and broken down again. I have said some absolutely fucking stupid bullshit: I once had a two page argument typed up explaining why a farming commune would obviously be superior to what we have now. I wrote that because I was 14.
At no point during any of this do I want to smack a kid over the head for having a moron's viewpoint. It's part of growing up, and moving past stupid views that you had is part of becoming an adult. It's the primary separation of maturity; the ability to accept, and not just pretend to accept, the fact that you may be wrong and that your judgment may not always be the best, and then correcting yourself when given the chance.
People do things because they are hurt, because they are confused, because they need to make sense of their lives when something goes amiss. A great deal of The Red Pill is made up of people who have done exactly what I have done: pursued someone who wasn't interested in them. All that happened was that they took a different path, and unfortunately the path that they took is incredibly unhealthy and downright exploitative.
As a very last bit, I do not think there is anything wrong with masculinity, and "being a man" is not something that should necessarily be frowned upon. Masculinity is not manipulation, it is not exploitation of people with past traumatic experiences, and it is not hiding your feelings behind a mask of sociopathy. It is not being sexist. Boys treat women like they're children, men treat women as people.
This is the Red Pill in a nutshell.. Let's get a little bit more in depth.
The Red Pill is an offshoot of two things: a very broken and bitter branch of MRAs long since pushed out of even that movement, and pick up "artists." It is focused around emotional manipulation in order to fuck women who are open to emotional manipulation. It takes a perverted view of masculinity and offers it to a solution to men who are vulnerable as a way handle the world around them; that they, by swallowing "the red pill," no longer have to deal with complex relationships that can sometimes end in pain and heartbreak and can have sex with almost anyone.
The subreddit shares "success stories," articles about masculinity, weekly advice, has "sponsored" (not paid, but officially endorsed) posters, and an evangelical mindset born from the idea that the members alone understand truth in a world corrupted by varying forces that all lead back to women. It loves evolutionary psychology, "biotruths," and lies that sound wonderful to anyone who has bought the bullshit.
It's also, if you took the time to look through the imgur album, horrifically sexist and naive. It is also ineffective, but that evidence is conveniently ignored. It is a subreddit and a philosophy that promotes behavior that ranges from mildly good advice (get in shape, be confident) to disgusting (treat women like children) to abusive (sleep with multiple women so that she never gets to view herself as important.)
Why am I talking about this here? Well, real simple. I noticed a post a few days ago, that would've normally flown past my radar until I actually clicked on the link. I was brought to [the red pill times](www.redpilltimes.com). This confused me greatly because I thought it was just a shitty subreddit, so I looked in to it more. I also questioned the poster if he was associated with the subreddit in the topic itself and received no answer.
So I looked a little bit further. The articles were mostly some amateur journalism, which struck me as fine but really didn't fit the name. Maybe, I thought, it was an actual "red pill" reference from the Matrix. Maybe the author was trying to be dedicated to truthful journalism? Well, sure, that's possible, but it didn't explain the "Your Daily Dose of Manliness" on the page.
And then I stumbled across this. Beyond that, there's more. So many more that I don't even want to list them to give the articles hits. Very few of them were posted on here, but they exist on that site and there's nothing actually stopping them from getting on hubski, ever.
There are numerous reasons why The Red Pill is wrong, wrong on so many individual accounts that it's not worth anyone's time to go through and catalog them all just to trot out every time someone decides to be delusional. At it's core it is flat out ignorant of how the world operates, and it's ignorant because the world we live in is one of vast complexity.
But the solution to the complexity is not to double down on a simple worldview, it's to build and grow yourself as a human being, to keep an open mind to new people and experiences. If you aren't confident, build some. Be adventurous, be brave. Go talk to someone who you wouldn't talk to, but to become a better you, it doesn't require degrading another human being.
I'm not calling for a sitewide ban and I would only ever call for that if it was a clear invasion by an outside community (see what stormfront has been doing to reddit for almost a year). I'm putting information in front of people in the best way I know how. And for the love of god, if you see someone in a thread being a shitbag, tell them that they're wrong. You don't have to destroy them, but nobody learns without criticism.
I'm sorry to anyone who expected a hyper vitriolic rant. I can't always be angry against a human being. Just movies.
Fuck movies.