On Tuesday, the New York Times, know for its ‘stellar’ India coverage, wondered if liberals would have to give up their Teslas simply because Elon Musk had tweeted: “Take the red pill.”
The tweet was quote-tweeted by several individuals including Ivanka Trump.
The Matrix co-creator Lily Wachowski also had an unparliamentary response.
While the red pill and blue pill juxtaposition is familiar with anyone with two brain cells who has watched the cult classic The Matrix (1999), liberals love to add their hue to it by claiming that the red pill is now a racist metaphor.
The NYT piece wrote: “The exchange referred to a scene from “The Matrix,” the 1999 science fiction action film. But the meaning of “red pill,” and the idea of taking it, have since percolated in online forums and become a deeply political metaphor. And with Mr. Musk and Ms. Trump, the phrase is now lodged more fully into the mainstream.”
Now, the piece claims that his analogy might make Tesla persona non grata – and it’s very easy to become one – with liberals.
In the piece, NYT states that taking the red pill is now appropriated by the ‘youngsters who spend their time on online forums like Reddit and 4chan’.
It said: “Red Pill forums were often filled with deeply misogynistic and often racist diatribes. The more extreme elements splintered into groups like involuntary celibates (“incels”) or male separatists(Men Going Their Own Way, or MGTOWs). Conferences like the 21 Convention and its sister convention, Make Women Great Again, sprang up to gather red-pilled men. Being red-pilled became a sort of umbrella term for all of it.”
Author Markos Moulitsas wrote: “Honestly, Musk is becoming a liability and the Tesla board needs to seriously consider ousting him. And I say that as a proud owner of a Tesla and a SpaceX fanatic who truly appreciates what he’s built.”
Musk has been on the same page as Trump about opening America amid the COVID-19 which, combined with his erratic behaviour, has made him a lightning rod for criticism on Twitter.
Others however wondered if the NYT had gone too far with its ‘wokeness’.
Author Manu Joseph wrote: “Not only Musk, anyone with talent will eventually quit 'liberalism', a cesspool of highly networked intellectual midgets who compensate for stature through overt humanitarianism, which is a fantasy of goodness, like how realism in art is not reality but a fantasy of reality.”
Another wrote: “This reads as if the writer overdosed on blue pills. The red pill has nothing to do with right or left. It has to do with honesty vs the malfeasance and depravity of the corporate press.”
