Come on…Take the Red Pill!
It’s So Seductive!
What does it mean to be red-pilled? It all goes back to that 1999 cult classic The Matrix where in a dystopian future humanity is unknowingly trapped inside a simulated reality, as well as being warehoused in a physical space called the Matrix.
Take the Red Pill
There are millions of people who believe that we are really trapped some kind of Matrix. To be red-pilled, is to wake up to the reality of your prison.
In the clip below, the legendary Morpheous, offers red and blue pills to the even more powerful Neo, (while also referencing a rabbit hole). The red pill will allow Neo to wake up, and the blue pill will allow him to keep sleeping.
Let’s see shall we?
If, you’ve seen the film you know that Neo takes the red pill, and this allows him to experience “reality” as it truly is; and it’s a nightmare. Machines have completely destroyed the world. Humans are less than slaves, (batteries, actually). And so…when people claim to have been “red-pilled” they are essentially claiming to be awakened to a horrendous reality, just like in the Matrix. How did this happen for them? Well, in the current reality, Q is Morpheous…and anon, (legions and legions of ordinary everymen and women all of the world) are Neo.
The blue pill represents the traditional political system (but mainly Democrats who are demonized beyond recognition in Qanon cult-philosophy. The red pill represents MAGA land.
And this is why the Qanon belief system is so extraordinarily seductive, it fits so nicely into modern 20th century mythology (which the Matrix is); and like all mythology, it contains a lot of symbolic truth. The world that humans used to know and love is gone. That’s true. The quest begins for humans to reclaim their basic humanity. This also seem to be true. But how are we going to escape the Matrix?
You Just Need Someone to Hate
Enter Qanon. Qanon has the answers as to what we can do to save ourselves from this horroriffic reality. Just like Morpheus and Neo, killed all the agents, the first thing Q is going to do is to kill all the democrats (or at least lock them all up.) And, according to Qanon this has been happening for the last 4 years. All those heinously evil and corrupt democrats: the Clintons, the Obamas, the Bushes (not really Democrats, but that doesn’t seem to matter) the Carters, are paying, big time. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening, according to Qanon.
This is why Qanon has captured the attention and zeal of so many on the right. Revenge is desired (for a whole host of terrible things that both parties have visited upon us all.) These revenge fantasies are very seductive.
And to nurse a revenge fantasy, all you need is an enemy. All you need is someone to hate and to blame for the clusterfuck that is this current world. If you have that, you are well on your way to setting things right. Enemies can be eliminated. (Except that almost never works.) Qanon has a clear set of enemies, mainly democratic politicians and those who support them, but also, most definitely, anyone who has the audacity to oppose President Donald J. Trump.
Trump is something of a deity in Q land. If you oppose Trump, you oppose everything that is good and decent and right. You are deranged, and must be dealt with accordingly, Kyle Rittenhouse style. You must be destroyed.
Our political system (corrupt as it is) has become so polarized that our two political parties pretend to despise each other. I can’t tell if they actually do, or if it’s just some huge game being played on the American voting public (which is only about half of the actual population.)
While the politicians pretend, American people believe this rigged game is real and the stakes are so high that war with other is the only answer.
The games these politicians play, do impact individual everyday lives. Republicans, conservatives and the altright, have been bemoaning liberal democrat destruction of their world for quite some time; and the things that they complain about are very real.
Unfortunately the scapegoats identified as causes are not. Barrack Obama was a Muslim terrorist born in Kenya? And that’s the problem…that’s why American democracy is a joke, and the economy is in shambles? Come on!
Now it’s all: Immigrants are coming to take your jobs! Just heard that on an I’m DONALD J Trump, and I support this message election ad. But of course he does. Does Trump have any other message besides division, hatred and fear for your enemies? (Which are almost anyone not white, (unless they are rich), Democrats (and/or people who believe in democracy as opposed to tyranny) and losers (which ironically if you follow Donald Trump’s definition of a loser, it’s going to include, most Americans, yes even the white ones) but this matter little to Qanon.
The storm is coming!
Election 2020 and Q and co is undoubtedly super excited about the coming storm that’s been promised. Finally, their enemies are getting what’s coming to them!
Qanon is part revenge fantasy, promising revenge on those destroying the country: Democrats with their Obamacare and socialism, immigrants stealing jobs, blacks who have the audacity to think their lives matter. Trump is gonna get them all and put them in their place behind bars! Law and Order! Enough of this touchy-feely liberal blue bullshit!
Qanon is super enticing to those 2nd Amendment, blow anyone to bits who stands against me, my family, or anything I believe in types; and these types are armed and dangerous. They want their due (even though I don’t think they know what that is besides taking to the streets with guns and killing protesters.) That solves no problems. But, it sure lets off some steam. Rinse! Repeat!
For the Love of God, Save The Children!
You liberal pro-choice child killer. You’ve always been evil. Taking your blue pills, according to the cult of Q, there’s just so much you either don’t see, or worse do and just don’t care. You refuse to see that the Clintons are satanic pedophiles. But of course you don’t. You believe in abortion, and that’s just as bad. You will not stand up for the children being sold into sex slavery. You and your evil.
Qanon also provides a righteous platform for those who are prolife evangelicals. (More on the evangelicals in a bit.) However, a qualifier is needed here. Prolife evangelicals are only pro-white life, cause there is certainly no discussion or acknowledgement of the value of POC life (via the BLM movement, indigenous water protection movements, or the horror happening with brown immigrant children at the border.) The cognitive dissonance, the ability of members of Qanon to advocate for the saving or some children, while simultaneously co-signing the terrorizing and eliminating other children never gets reconciled within the philosophy.
You think this might matter to Qanon members of color — it doesn’t. There are all kinds of people affiliated with Qanon and passionately so. Even blacks who despise BLM, (which is a Qanon membership criterion). Even immigrants who know other immigrants are in cages at the border. These people can easily ignore these facts that put their very lives in danger, because they think they are believing in something much greater. They are awakening to the reality of our world. They are brave, like Neo. They have taken the red pill. And now they know the truth. Satanists Democrat pedophiles must be stopped, so that the children can be saved. Save the white children and save the world.
Qanon is also a religion, replacing old and broken Christianity that has not kept millennials old promises…or maybe it is through Q.
Christians, especially evangelical Christians have been waiting for an armegeddon for quite some time. The last days, the end of the world is something to hope and pray for, because there will be a “rapture” where all the good Christians receive their eternal due, and everyone else goes to hell, for forever more. So even if Trump ushers in the end of the world, that’s a good thing, for evangelical Qanoners.
Armageddon or bust! The evangelicals scream. The end of the world might be the best option, if you believe the Qanon cult philosophy is the truth, especially when it comes to the deep state…which, okay, maybe I kinda do. Q got me!
Whose Afraid of the Deep Dark State?
The anti-vaxxers and plandemic believers are suddenly all Qed-up because Trump’s not wearing a mask. He knows the deal. He’s fighting against Bill Gate’s plans for world domination. He’s fighting against Big Pharma. And hell, maybe he is, I don’t doubt it, cause Trump has his reasons. Here’s what I don’t believe: that his reasons are me or you.
Trump is all for Trump, but to get what HE wants, he has to fight against the plandemic and the deep state. The deep state. Talk about a rabbit hole. This one is absolutely terrifying.
The basic gist of the deep state theory, is that there’s a really dark, hidden one world government system that we don’t see, controlling all the facade government systems that we do. None of our governments are real, not a single one of them. But they are all controlled by something dark, something maybe not even human, that just wants endless wars and endless deaths, for endless profits, while tearing up the planet, (which may not even be their planet, but a colonized planet) keeping everyone on it oppressed and miserable.
No wonder people want to write Qanon off as a bunch of crazies. It’s a better option than entertaining these darker Q theories. Sadly, I have to admit, this is the one that appeals to me. If Q is right…if that’s what’s up…and if Trump alone can fix it (cause that’s his thing) more power to him! I hope he does! But do I really think this is going to happen?
I don’t.
It’s such a nice fantasy though. I wish it were true! I wish I could believe this! But if Donald Trump is the savior to all of humanity, (Qanon asserts that this is definitely true) he needs better PR, for real.
Because right now, it looks like he can’t stand about 9/10s of the human population. I’m thinking that’s an image problem for the savior of all humanity. But that’s just me…
Anyway…back to Qanon. It is a belief system dances with and exposes bits of truth, and the truths being exposed are so frightening. We believe in deep state theories because we look at the world and KNOW something is just not right. It’s enough to radicalize anyone.
You can find (and lose) yourself in the labyrinth of conspiracy theories that is Qanon, because that red pill is one hell of a drug! Who doesn’t want to save the kids and the world from an evil shadow government, like Morpheus and Neo?
But what’s wrong with the world today, is so much more complicated than any one conspiracy theory or a 90 minute 90s film. Even the Qanon, which has a little bit of something for everyone, only covers so much ground, while ignoring entire libraries of information that don’t fit into the Q schema.
Even if you’re full on red pill, you’ve only got one eye open. You have yet to awaken to the fact that world will still suck, no matter what pills you take, or what rabbit holes you explore, or whose your president or enemy. It’s just the default programming of this 3D plane…it sucks!
Ironically, if we’re ever gonna change that, we have to awaken to the only reality that ever mattered, the one inside of us. Despite all appearances to the contrary, we’re not trapped here. Here is only an illusion (albeit a very persistent one.)
Changes to the illusion happen from the inside out, that is the both the most subtle and radical conspiracy theory of all.
