Radical Red Pill Realities Revealed

What even is this newsletter? I’m a journalist on parental leave who writes a weekly, maybe incoherent email about everything I have a strong opinion on. But is this newsletter a journalistic product? I would argue that it isn’t. Sure, I know the craft, so it won’t be full of inaccuracies and my arguments, as contrarian as they are, should be fairly well-structured. Much like a carpenter who builds a chair at home, my professional skills naturally inform my work here. The chair will not collapse, if you will. However, this platform differs from my usual journalistic endeavours in several key aspects. The content here is more personal, opinionated, and, admittedly, less polished. You won’t find the rigorous editing and fact-checking processes typical of professional publications. Instead, you get a raw, unvarnished glimpse into my thoughts and perspectives.

Speaking of personal matters, this week’s first and most elaborate topic hits close to home.

Coming of Age Meets Going Off the “Red Pill” Deep End

As the father of a young boy, I find myself inexorably drawn to Netflix’s ‘Adolescence,’ a series that demands our attention not just for its artistic merit but for its unflinching portrayal of a societal cancer metastasizing in the dark corners of the internet. This is not a teen drama; it’s a harrowing descent into the ‘red pill’ ideology—a concept that has strayed far from its origins in ‘The Matrix’ and now serves as a common rallying point for misogynists and conspiracy theorists alike.

Our protagonist, Jamie, is a 13-year-old boy who should be more concerned with his Fortnite kill-death ratio than with the intricacies of dating. Instead, we watch in horror as the aftermath of his contact with online ‘manosphere’ communities plays out. Jamie doesn’t stop at passive consumption. He takes this toxic brew of resentment and entitlement and brutally murders his classmate, Katie. This isn’t a spoiler; the series isn’t interested in playing ‘whodunnit.’ It’s far more concerned with the ‘whydunnit,’ and the answer is as clear as chilling.

Let’s take a slight step back: Consider this all-too-common scenario, not from that series—this is how it occurs millions of times in real life. A 13-year-old boy struggling with self-esteem and feeling awkward around girls innocently looks up on Youtube: “How to boost confidence”. He clicks on a video titled “5 Easy Ways to Build Self-Confidence for Teens.” The advice appears helpful, and this young boy feels slightly better. In the recommended videos, he spots “Why You’re Not Popular in High School — The Truth.” Intrigued, he decides to watch it. The content is edgier, hinting at “harsh realities” regarding social dynamics. The next suggestion catches his attention: “The Secret to Getting Girls — What They Don’t Tell You.” As this insecure teenager delves deeper, he encounters videos like “Toxic Masculinity is a Myth — Reclaim Your Manhood” and “Why 95% of Men are Single and Lonely in 2025.” The language grows more provocative, introducing terms such as “alpha” and “beta” males. Before long, the boy finds himself viewing “The Truth About Female Nature — Red Pill Insights.” The content is shocking yet oddly compelling. It seems to articulate his frustrations and offer simple solutions. The algorithm continues to present similar videos: “Feminism’s War on Men” and “How to Be an Alpha Male in a Beta World.” Ultimately, our 13-year-old is deeply ensconced in redpill territory, consuming videos that openly promote misogynistic views and conspiracy theories. What began as an innocent search for self-improvement has drawn him down a dark path of radicalisation, all through a sequence of seemingly logical steps, each video incrementally more extreme than the last.

The red pill movement has co-opted the Matrix’s allegory and twisted it into a rallying cry for the disaffected and deluded. Their prophets range from the pseudo-intellectual posturings of Jordan Peterson to the cartoonish machismo of Andrew Tate, with Ben Shapiro providing a sort of comic relief, inadvertently revealing more about his own insecurities than any grand truths about the human condition. This movement has been part of the internet for as long as I, someone chronically online, can remember. For those of you who read last week’s newsletter about Curtis Yarvin: he was the one who popularized the metaphor of the red pill in a 2007 blog post. However, misogyny as an organised online phenomenon dates back much earlier, with the so-called manosphere—a collection of anti-feminist websites and online communities that also encompasses the men's rights movement, incels, and pickup artists.

In recent years, the red pill movement has swollen to alarming proportions, spawning a generation of young men who view women not as fellow human beings but as an alien species to be studied, manipulated, and conquered. The incel community, a particularly virulent strain of red pill thinking, has been linked to numerous acts of violence. These are the logical conclusion of an ideology that dehumanizes half the population. Perhaps most troubling is the effect on young boys, whose impressionable minds are being force-fed a diet of resentment, entitlement, and misogyny, all under the guise of ‘self-improvement’ and ‘male empowerment.’

The red pill movement is not, as its adherents would have us believe, a brave new philosophy for a confused world. It is, rather, the death rattle of patriarchy, a desperate attempt to cling to power in a world that has, here and there, finally begun to recognize the fundamental equality of all human beings. In the end, these self-proclaimed champions of truth are nothing more than modern-day snake oil salesmen, peddling a toxic brew of insecurity and rage to a generation of young men desperate for meaning and belonging. They offer not the red pill of truth but a poisoned chalice of delusion and hate. In a world where being ‘red-pilled’ has transformed from a sci-fi plot device into a rallying cry for the disaffected and deluded, ‘Adolescence’ is a chilling reminder of the internet’s power to shape young minds. It’s a wake-up call, I feel, particularly for those like me: fathers of young boys.

Amazon Decides Your Privacy Settings Were Just Suggestions

Starting tomorrow, Amazon is removing the “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” privacy feature from Echo devices, which means all voice commands will be sent to Amazon’s servers, regardless of user preference. Perfect timing, as Jeff Bezos transforms The Washington Post into an outlet that publishes only his narrow views on “personal liberties” and “free markets,” while ensuring that your words go straight to Amazon. Bezos, who instigated over 250,000 cancellations when the Post didn’t endorse a presidential candidate, thereby somewhat endorsing Trump, now wants access to your living room conversations. He claims this change is necessary for “enhanced capabilities” and “generative AI functions,” but to me it appears to be a data grab. Amazon has already paid $25 million for improperly storing children’s Alexa recordings and has a history of private recording access. Now they’re stripping away the only privacy feature remaining for concerned users. While Amazon insists everything is “encrypted” and “secure,” they’ve repeatedly prioritized data collection over user privacy. The same billionaire who stifles diverse opinions in his newspaper is now commandeering your intimate conversations. This development seems especially dubious as Bezos aligns himself with Trump, who praised the recent changes at the Post. From now on, your shopping lists and private conversations will be processed by a company owned by someone dismantling journalistic independence.

Big Balls & Bigger Blunders

The Trump administration’s second term is just three months old, and we’re already seeing a remarkable display of incompetence that is dangerous rather than comical. Two recent scandals highlight this administration’s recklessness and ineptitude. First, a 19-year-old DOGE staffer known as “Big Balls,” allegedly provided tech support to a cybercriminal group while in high school, engaging in cryptocurrency theft and doxxing an FBI agent. Now, he can access sensitive government networks containing information about diplomats and national security. Second, Trump’s top national security officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, inadvertently shared details of military operations in Yemen in a Signal chat that included Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic. Hours before a military operation, they revealed timing, targets, weaponry, and the sequence of strikes.

Is anyone surprised? This administration has shown a pattern of recklessness from day one. Appointing unqualified loyalists to key positions and allowing a 19-year-old with ties to cybercriminals access to sensitive systems leads to inevitable security breaches. The White House’s response has been revealing; rather than confront the security issues, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt labeled Goldberg an “anti-Trump hater” and blamed “media propagandists” for a “Signal hoax.” Meanwhile, Elon Musk simply stated, “Big Balls is awesome” on X.

These scandals illustrate Steve Bannon’s “muzzle velocity” strategy, which I discussed in the fifth edition of this newsletter. He stated in 2019: “The opposition party is the media. They can only focus on one thing at a time… All we have to do is flood the zone.” This strategy works as intended. By creating constant outrage, the administration ensures no single scandal garners sustained attention. As Ezra Klein noted, “If you overwhelm the media with too many issues at once, no coherent opposition can emerge.”

The critical point is this: We must not let the volume of scandals normalize such behaviour or lessen our outrage. When a teenager connected to cybercriminals accesses sensitive government systems, it’s not just an embarrassing incident; it’s a significant national security threat. When cabinet officials share military plans insecurely with journalists, they endanger American service members. The “flood the zone” strategy aims to overwhelm our ability to focus and express outrage, leading us to dismiss these events as merely “Trump being Trump.” Each incident, however, poses a real threat to geopolitical security and democracy. This incompetence is not just embarrassing; it’s dangerous, and the danger does not lessen simply due to its prevalence.

CDU & CSU’s Transparency Reforms: Because Who Needs Accountability Anyway?

Just a few weeks after their last attack on civil society, the German Union parties (CDU and CSU) now plan to repeal the German equivalent to the Freedom of Information Act (IFG), a key accountability component in Germany since 2006. This move threatens the public’s right to oversee government actions, allowing politicians to act unchallenged.

The Act has been instrumental in uncovering scandals and ensuring government transparency, allowing journalists to access crucial documents and information. Without it, journalists would face substantial barriers in investigating and reporting on government activities, potentially leading to a chilling effect on investigative journalism. Ironically, Philipp Amthor, a CDU politician, plays a controversial role in this scenario. He is leading the negotiations for the Union to abolish the IFG, despite having been exposed for questionable lobbying activities, thanks to the very law he now seeks to dismantle. In 2018 and 2019, Amthor was involved in a lobbying scandal with the U.S. startup Augustus Intelligence, where he used his parliamentary position to advocate for the company. The scandal was uncovered using the IFG, which allowed for disclosing his lobbying letters. Is this push Amthor’s attempt to conceal corruption and exploit political power for personal gain? By dismantling transparency, Amthor would deepen public distrust and ensure that politicians like him can operate with impunity, free from accountability.

"Anyone who calls for the abolition of the Freedom of Information Act without replacing it with another transparency rule is obviously afraid of more openness and proximity to citizens. In times when more and more people distrust state institutions, it is a dangerous mistake to want to curtail democratic rights and go down the path of isolation," says Netzwerk Recherche’s Manfred Redelfs.

You made it to the end. I’m chuffed!

This week, my football club made history: the DFB-Pokal semifinal between Werder Bremen Women and Hamburger SV Women attracted 57,000 fans (I was one of them), the highest attendance for a women’s club match in Germany. You can watch a brief documentary about it here—and you definitely should.

Thank you for reading.