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How to Stop the Red Pill Phenomenon from Spreading

Can we stop the Red Pill from poisoning others?

By Chelsea KendrickPublished 7 years ago 9 min read
Top Story - August 2017
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Among feminists, there is a strong call to stop the Red Pill phenomenon from spreading. If you don't know what the Red Pill is, it's an internet community known for misogyny and telling men to emotionally abuse women to bed them. It has been linked with advocating for rape under the guise that "all women have rape fantasies."

Needless to say, men who convert to Red Pill-style philosophies on dating often find that they get increasingly angry and hateful towards women. Many who were interviewed by mainstream media outlets also admit to having been abusive towards women.

Women have gone online to talk about breaking up with their exes after realizing they have been poisoned by the Red Pill. Despite the fact that it turns good men into abusers, many Red Pill users do stay partnered up.

No matter how you look at it, though, the Red Pill is misogynistic, hateful, and dangerous. Nowadays, feminists and those who just are worried about domestic violence rates are working to stop the Red Pill from spreading.

You might be wondering how to stop the Red Pill phenomenon from spreading online, or in your friends. Here's a number of ways we can curb it.

Name Them And Out Them

Part of the reason why the Red Pill forum and its community are as powerful as they are is because they are done under the guise of anonymity. The social fallout many of the people who post such misogynistic material face, once they are outed, is enough to make them rethink their ways.

Take, for example, the Red Pill's founder, Representative Robert Fisher of New Hampshire. Upon having his connections to the misogynistic site outed, he basically had his career ruined. People now associate him with that movement, and his own party has even asked him to step down.

Do you think Fisher will get female voters? Absolutely not. Even if he refuses to step down, he's now marked as a woman-hater, and rightfully so.

Now, imagine what would happen to the typical man who posts about flirting with other women in front of his wife just to keep her self-esteem low. Imagine seeing that, as his wife, or as his mother. Chances are that he would start to rethink that belief.

Similar "name and shame" tactics have been used successfully to shame men who send photos of their genitalia with some success. Others have started to name and shame abusers on Twitter.

After all, Red Pill users have doxxed, threatened, and even stalked women who called them out on their behavior. So why shouldn't women do the same? Perhaps it's time to fight fire with fire, and get as extreme with their tactics as they are.

However, I'm of the school that thinks that we shouldn't try to do this for one reason, and one reason alone: arguing with someone emotionally will not make things better. It will only stoke the flames of an already burning fire.

Acknowledge The Red Pill As A Hate Group And Act As Such

Reddit recently banned a number of subreddits that were geared towards hatred of a certain demographic. Some of them, such as /r/Fatpeoplehate, were all about body-shaming people who were overweight. Others were geared towards different races.

It's clear that the Red Pill is hateful towards women. It advocates rape, calls women "pigs," and encourages domestic abuse. So, why isn't it being banned by Reddit? Moreover, why are so many people hesitant to just straight up say it's a hate group? Why didn't execs at Reddit chose to stop the Red Pill forum from existing?

Whether Red Pill users want to admit it or not, dehumanizing women by acting like they're "dog trainers with human pets" is not loving. This isn't what love is. This is how slave owners treated blacks in 1850. This is hate.

Much like other hate groups, they also recruit via media - including a fairly recently made Red Pill movie. Cinemas that showed the recent Red Pill movie need to be sent petitions to ban it. Additionally, venues need to stop booking Red Pill-related events. (After all, they wouldn't book a KKK rally, would they?)

It's time to acknowledge this brand of misogyny as a hate group, and it's also time to censure it, denounce it, and ban it on public forums. Acknowledging the hate is the first step in the plan on how to stop the Red Pill phenomenon from spreading.

A Healthy Outlet

The biggest issue feminists have when they try to talk about how to stop the Red Pill from spreading is that they don't think about what the Red Pill does for men - or why so many men fall for it.

The problem with the Red Pill is that it does fulfill a need that men have these days - sort of. The men who are there are feeling angry, frustrated, and just upset about their lot in life. Most men who discover the Red Pill do so when they are exceptionally lonely, insecure, and isolated.

These are the guys who are being passed up for dates, the guys who were regularly told that "being nice" is all that needs to be done to get a girlfriend. They are lonely, feeling a lack of validation, and often just feel like they're attacked for being male.

The Red Pill promises them a "roadmap to success" in dating, gives them a place to vent, and also gives them a community they likely don't have. We have to acknowledge that that's its power. We also have to give them a place that offers all that - and also offers them more.

The men who are going on the Red Pill forums are men who feel lost in dating. Dating isn't easy. Perhaps it's time that men start getting coaching that involves tricks that make them more attractive that don't involve manipulation and abuse?

Men, just like women, need a place to vent. They need support, and they often have to deal with a lot of contradictions about dating that aren't easy to understand.

They may even need that guidance and encouragement that can help bring them to a healthier lifestyle, a more outgoing demeanor, and an overall better version of themselves. Life coaches are great for that, as are dating coaches.

Something along the line of talk therapy that encourages positive male role models would be awesome for venting, especially if it was guided on the lines of dating. Giving them honest advice that makes them stop seeing women as a source of validation, too, could prove to be immensely helpful.

Until we offer men a better, safer, and healthier alternative, there's not much we can do to stop the Red Pill as a community.

Red Pill Tactic Awareness

A large portion of the Red Pill's power lies in the fact that women don't realize that guys are using the Red Pill's abusive techniques on them. That makes them question whether or not it really is something that's wrong with them and often makes girls feel like they should work harder to please them.

Obviously, this is what we call being manipulative and emotionally abusive. It's poisonous to a healthy relationship, and it's absolutely vile to use something like this on someone who's interested in you.

Perhaps it's time that feminists start warning people about tactics like dread game, unwanted kino, and other similar methods. The more women are able to pick up on these things, the less effective they will be - and the more transparent Red Pill users will become.

Moreover, raising awareness about the fallout from Red Pill relationship backfires might be a good idea, too. That way, men may realize that the Red Pill only will work in the short term. That alone will stop the Red Pill usage in many guys who just want love.

Differentiating The Red Pill's Lies From Good Information

The problem with the Red Pill is that a lot of its advice and information is good. For example, getting guys to focus on getting healthier, losing weight, and improving their lives is a wonderful thing. Teaching them not to beg women for dates, to avoid "buying love," and teaching them to stand up for themselves is valid advice.

What isn't good advice is to basically make women think that they are going to lose them at any moment, telling them that all women have "rape fantasies," or saying that "all women are like that." Just as not all men are alike, not all women are alike. Women are individuals. Women don't want to be emotionally abused or sexually assaulted.

Somewhere along the line, many men in the Red Pill forum may have forgotten that women are also human, suffering from the same issues they did. As a result, they often end up behaving in a way that treats women as subhuman - and skew any relationship they have into an unhealthy dynamic by default.

Additionally, it's absolutely crucial to debunk the pseudoscience of hypergamy when talking about the Red Pill with people who are Red Pillers. While much of the Red Pill's belief base is made on emotion, the fact is that some now-obsolete scientific studies may justify the Red Pill's idea of "hypergamous females." It does not matter that the studies are disproven or invalidated. They are clinging at straws.

By showing men that there are better ways to handle anger, better ways to improve themselves, better ways to get laid, and also better science that debunks the Red Pill's claims, we would be able to stop the Red Pill in its tracks.

Cruel To Be Kind?

Sometimes, the best way to deal with Red Pill users is to shun them and stop talking to them.

But, there's a lot of guys who should be saved from the Red Pill's grips. There's a lot of guys who could use feminist advice, and who should be a part of a community of strong, nontoxic men.

So, if you need to know how to stop the Red Pill, it's a mixture of things. It's a mixture of compassion with strict boundary setting. It's a mixture of knowing when to walk away with when to lend a helping hand. It's a mixture of talking, listening, and also lecturing.

If we want to stop the Red Pill phenomenon from spreading, we'll need both men and women to have a discourse on dating - and to accept that it's never as easy as taking a pill.

feminism
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About the Creator

Chelsea Kendrick

Just an Indiana gal who heard the call of the East Coast. Twitter and Instagram: @chel_bk

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