What, really, did the red pill signify anymore? What was it supposed to be telling us about the world? Musk’s Twitter feed is typically defined by his anti-tax, anti-regulatory libertarianism, or by his often overbearing-read: relatable-desire to be loved for posting clever memes. The pill’s symbolic journey has been long and gnarly, and has led to more confusion than clarity. The widely viewed Musk-Trump-Wachowski social media dustup, a collision between celebrities of the industrial, political, and entertainment variety, traveled into territory where those three camps tend to get pretty muddied. The way they were tossing her symbol around was likely a lot different from what she and her sister, Lana, had in mind when, more than two decades earlier, they composed the indelible scene in which Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) has to choose between taking a blue pill, which would cause him to remain who he is in a fabricated reality, or a red one, which would officially transform him into Neo-the chosen one, who alone could take down the grand enslavers and illusion makers.

“Fuck both of you,” she replied to Trump. One of the two directors responsible for The Matrix-the film in which the modern concept of the “red pill” originated-Wachowski didn’t appear very pleased with these people, neither in general nor in regard to how they were continuing the strange legacy of her metaphor. Less than an hour later, Lilly Wachowski chimed in. She quote-tweeted him cheerily: “Taken!” she said. That hunch was then affirmed by the enthusiastic response of Ivanka Trump, whose father became president at least in some minor part because of forces associated with the symbol that Musk was evoking. In May 2020, Elon Musk tweeted “Take the red pill.” It was unclear precisely what he meant, but those with enough cultural context had a decent idea of what he was trying to say.

Matrix blue pill red pill