Lilly Wachowski, the younger half of the sibling duo behind the Matrix movies, ripped entrepreneur Elon Musk and White House adviser Ivanka Trump on Sunday for mentioning the “red pill,” a reference to a key symbol in the trilogy.
In the original Matrix, reality as we know it is an illusion maintained by machines, a computer program into which every human being is plugged while being exploited as sources of energy on massive farms on a futuristic Earth.
A rogue group of humans, having escaped the “matrix,” find potential dissenters and offer them a choice. Those who take the blue pill return to the illusion, while those who take the red pill are expelled from it — into the true reality.
In recent years, conservatives have adopted the “red pill” as a symbol of those who have seen past the mainstream media filter. Not coincidentally, red has also symbolized Republicans in recent years — and President Donald Trump.
It is not clear exactly what Musk was referring to, but the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been a vocal opponent of the economic shutdowns that many states, including his own California, have imposed in the coronavirus pandemic.
Ivanka Trump responded with a tweet of her own:
It is not clear what she was referring to, either, but the presidential daughter, once embraced by the elite, has been the target of unrelenting abuse and criticism since her father won.
As if to illustrate the point, Wachowski tweeted: “Fuck both of you.”
Lilly Wachowski and her sister, Lana, were both once known as men — Andy and Larry, respectively. They both came out as transgender — Andy in 2016, Larry in 2012.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.