Blue Pill or Red Pill – Choose Wisely

I’ve been writing a great deal about buyer’s remorse.  But just when I think I’ve said everything that needs to be said on the subject, it suddenly gets even worse.  President Asterisk’s poll numbers are going south faster than a Minnesota snowbird in October.  But, not to be undone, President-elect Harris is racing old Joe to the bottom of the scale.  Even liberals are starting to disclose how truly nasty and unlikeable the duo really are.  Has Joe managed to “red pill” the population?

In our modern-day version of The Matrix, the left has been attempting to “blue pill” us with their incessant propaganda.  However, some are experimenting with the red pill.  They’re opening their eyes and seeing the truth for the first time.  It’s the blue pill for the leftist Kool-Aid and the red pill for truth and reality — a rather appropriate color choice — no?

The blue pill provides comfort — at least in the short term.  It dulls our sense of reality and inhibits our ability to reason.  It provides a sense of security — even if it’s only an illusion.  The blue pill allows us to accept:

• That America was founded by evil men for evil purposes
• That individuals are ill-prepared to make smart decisions
• That individual liberty is an impediment to utopia
• That the killing of human beings is not murder, if done in the womb
• That human beings control the weather
• That science is settled except when applied to biology (humans are the only species in which DNA is not a determinant of gender)

Conversely, the red pill offers a life of struggle.  It requires that we cope with the world as it really is — not as we wish it were.  It allows us to choose our own path.  We can languish in sloth — with 200 cable channels at our fingertips.  Or we can strive for greatness.  The choice is ours, but the red pill requires us to accept:

• That liberty is a higher priority than safety and security
• That we are responsible for the conduct of our own lives
• That we accept accountability for our own successes and failures
• That there are no victim classes – only outcomes which we individually determine

A number of years ago, my employer sent me to attend a seminar.  The attendees included people from consumer goods manufacturers, the biomedical industry, and one defense contractor — me.  The instructor started the seminar by having everyone introduce themselves and describe what their work involved.  When I said that I was a defense contractor, the instructor snidely commented, “Oh, peace is your profession.”  It was a reference to the slogan the Strategic Air Command adopted in 1957.  I responded, “No. Supporting those who defend liberty is our business.”  The whole class erupted in laughter.  That’s when I realized that for many people, defending liberty was considered an obsolete and absurd notion.  It seems the blue pill has been in general use for a while now.

All Joe needed to do was provide normalcy rather than demand unity — and issue everyone their daily dose of the blue.  Instead, Joe has behaved like an unsupervised child in a candy store, indulging his every wish.  He shocked the body politic with too much radicalism, too fast — and it has awakened the citizenry for a brief moment.  Joe “red pilled” the body politic.

In reality, the blue pill (leftist propaganda) is losing its efficacy.  Once people know propaganda is propaganda, they stop believing the propaganda.  I know this is a difficult concept for the left to grasp, but when one catches someone lying to them, they’re less likely to believe future lies.  The propagandists overplayed their hand.  The propaganda is no longer convincing.

At the same time, Joe has hit us with an unprecedented level of radicalism which runs counter to logic and common sense.  We need a higher dosage of the blue pill to avoid seeing the truth, at the very time the pill is losing its potency.  Some of us have become underdosed. Truth and reality are beginning to intrude on the leftist matrix.  Just when we’ve discovered that we’ve been lied to, we’re being asked to believe bigger lies.  The populace is getting a glimpse of reality and now must choose — blue pill or red pill – leftist propaganda or our lying eyes.

We can take the blue pill and choose to continue living in a leftist dreamscape.  It’s a choice to be subjects in a modern-day Matrix in which our masters feed us, shelter us, and determine every aspect of our lives.  It’s the life of slaves — pampered perhaps — but slaves nonetheless.

Or we can take the red pill and accept that life’s challenges are an inherent part of the human condition.  It’s a more difficult path — particularly in the short term.  But it offers endless possibilities.  I refuse to be anyone’s subject.  I chose to chart my own future.  I’ll take the red pill.

This article was first published by American Thinker.