redpilled

A term used by conservative internet users to favourably describe their own sociopolitical viewpoints; at its most basic level, it means to have been made aware of something obscure or forbidden. It originates from 1999 film “The Matrix,” ironically written and directed by two transgender women, in a scene where the protagonist is offered a choice between a literal blue pill to “wake up…and believe whatever he wants to believe” and a red pill to “stay in Wonderland, …be shown deep the rabbit hole goes,” and join a rebellion against the simulated reality he lives in. The red pill itself is believed to have been been modeled after red Premarin-brand tablets, popular as estrogen-boosting medication for transgender women in the 1990s. Has exactly the same denotation and exactly the opposite connotation as “woke.”