- Initially, the term red pill has strong association with the alt-right and the incel community. The term red pill (as a verb) or the phrase from the Matrix movie, taking the red pill (as a noun), initially meant waking up and seeing the world from an alt-right, anti- feminist, or incel perspective rather than a perspective that is supposedly popularized by mainstream liberal media. Someone would “get red pilled” or “get redpilled,” or when someone is “redpilling” someone else, they are converting them into a member from the alt-right or incel community. Note that “red pill” seldom appears as a noun now, and is almost always a verb. Now, while “redpill” and “redpilling” seem to be still in use in the incel and alt-right community, “redpilling” has widened to mean anything that changes people’s perspectives fundamentally and causes people to see the reality better than they did before.
redpilling
derivation; adjective
revelatory, especially in the manner of uncovering truth from commonly believed
Etymology : “red pill” (as in the Matrix movie’s fictional red bill that wakes the protagonist up to see the reality) + present participle “-ing”
Source : “This is the most redpilling video I’ve seen” A comment under a video by YouTuber Joshua Fluke about exploitations in the tech industry. Around 2020.
Last modified: 26 November 2020