‘The Matrix’ Creator Lilly Wachowski Rips Ivanka Trump and Elon Musk’s “Red Pill” Appropriation

The Matrix co-creator Lilly Wachowski has made her feelings for Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump clear. Yesterday, Wachowski slammed Musk and Trump for appropriating The Matrix‘s “red pill,” a metaphor for complete knowledge, to further their agenda. After the Trump acolytes tweeted that they have “taken the red pill,” Wachowski replied to the post with a concise message: “Fuck both of you.”

The Elon Musk red pill brouhaha began on Sunday afternoon, when the SpaceX founder tweeted, “Take the red pill” alongside a rose emoji. What is the red pill in The Matrix, exactly? As film fans know, Musk was referring to The Matrix‘s choice between ignorance and knowledge. In Wachowski’s film, Neo (Keanu Reeves) finally learns that he’s been living in a computer simulation, and Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) offers him a choice: take a blue pill and return to his previous life with no memory of his journey, or take a red pill to learn the truth about the Matrix.

Wachowski’s “red pill” metaphor is meant to be a progressive message about self-identity and understanding, but in recent years, the phrase has been adopted by conservatives, who equate “taking the red pill” to accepting Trump’s message.

Musk’s red pill tweet attracted plenty of attention on its own, but when it was retweeted by Ivanka Trump, who noted that she has already “taken” the red pill, it exploded, and it soon caught the eye of Wachowski herself. Her expletive-filled rebuke quickly went viral, prompting The Matrix mastermind urged her new followers to donate to the Brave Space Alliance.

It’s been a busy week for Musk, who has recently praised Trump’s coronavirus response and threatened to move Tesla’s California headquarters in the shelter-in-place guidelines are maintained. While many Twitter users slammed Musk’s latest social media move, he does have at least one fan: Meghan McCain. Last week, The View co-host thanked Musk for reopening Tesla facilities, saying, “[He] is completely waving his finger at local officials in California … He’s saying, ‘No. It is important that people go back to work as long as we do it safely.’ As of today, I’m not aware that Elon Musk has been arrested for doing anything wrong.”

For those who still don’t understand the red pill controversy (including Elon Musk), The Matrix is currently streaming on Netflix.

Where to stream The Matrix