The Red Pill is a right-wing misogynist online community named in reference to the movie Matrix, in which “taking the red pill” means casting aside a veil of lies and deception in order to see the truth. For the Red Pill, this “truth” is about the perceived real essences of masculinity and femininity deliberately obscured by a hostile feminist society. Disturbingly, adherents to Red Pilled ideas exert considerable influence on American society. Multiple terrorist attacks were committed in the name of these hateful convictions, the 2014 Isla Vista shootings and the 2018 Toronto van attack being only two among many more. People with vast popularity and social outreach have publicly adopted Red Pill terminology and alluded to endorsing its views on gender and society, such as Minecraft creator Markus Persson, Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump. Why and how has the specific RedPill ideology spread online? What compels an individual to embrace hateful and sexist notions about people in their immediate surroundings and the workings of society at large? This project examines The Red Pill’s ideological structure and unravels the intricacies of its persuasive force through the analytic frameworks of rhetorical populism and conversion to new religious movements, offering insights into how a hateful community can convince people of the truthfulness of its ideas. 

Lead Researcher: Laura Csuka