On Sunday, Elon Musk tweeted about taking the Red Pill, which Ivanka Trump enthusiastically retweeted as “Taken!”
The Matrix co-creator Lilly Wachowski offered the perfect response to this:
Fuck both of you
— Lilly Wachowski (@lilly_wachowski) May 17, 2020
On Monday morning, Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt tried to explain the origins of the red pill meme, which has been hijacked by the alt-right despite being created by two trans women.
You could take the Blue Pill if you wanted to go back home or you wanted the story to end. You could take the Red Pill if you wanted to continue on to Wonderland.
Between the Death Star and this Wonderland gaffe — does ANYONE in the Trump administration have any knowledge of Pop Culture?
I guess their lack of humanities education could explain some things.pic.twitter.com/sU4bO3W0xP
— Quaranteenage Dirtbag, Baby (@thomdunn) May 18, 2020
To be fair: in The Matrix, Morpheus does say, “You take the blue pill…the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill…you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” Because the character is speaking metaphorically to Neo about the fact that the world we know is a digital simulation and we’re all just factory farmed batteries to feed evil robots.
It’s not clear if Ainsley Earhardt understands this distinction.