Red pill culture isn’t what you think, says Matrix co-creator Lilly Wachowski
Plus: how much would you pay for a green American Girl doll?
Greetings!
Here are the latest trending internet culture stories today:
Lilly Wachowski talked about MAGA’s embrace of The Matrix on Caleb Hearon’s podcast.
Online backlash came swiftly for Oprah Winfrey, who highlighted the growing trend of going “no contact” with toxic family members in a podcast episode.
The American Girls x Wicked For Good dolls are being resold for over $1,000 in some cases.
Til next time!
— W.J.
⚡️ Today in Internet Culture
“No! That’s wrong!”: Lilly Wachowski slammed right-wingers for co-opting the “red pill” and missing the point of “The Matrix” entirely
Lilly Wachowski recently pushed back on MAGA supporters who tried to claim an iconic scene from The Matrix. The movie’s release in 1999 introduced the now-famous moment when Morpheus offered Neo the blue pill or the red pill.
Although fans have long debated that choice, the trans filmmakers, Lilly and Lana Wachowski, repeatedly explained that the metaphor had nothing to do with conservative politics. Still, MAGA figures attempted to bend the imagery to match their narratives.
“Just before a major holiday”: Oprah’s episode about going “no contact” is causing backlash—here’s why some say it missed the mark
Oprah Winfrey’s latest podcast episode stepped directly into a tense online discussion about going “no contact” with family members, and people online aren’t happy with how she framed it.
Although she positioned the episode as an exploration with “experts, adult children who have cut off their parents, parents who have been estranged,” many viewers said her approach felt incomplete.
Fans are paying up to $1K for “Wicked” American Girl dolls that sold out weeks before Christmas
American Girl’s limited-edition Wicked dolls, a green-skinned Elphaba and sparkly Glinda, launched in September ahead of Wicked: For Good and sold out almost immediately.
Fans looking to scoop the coveted pair of American Girls as holiday gifts (or for themselves) are paying top dollar on resale sites. Bidding for the dolls, originally priced at $295, has soared up to $1,000 on resale sites like eBay.
🕸️ Crawling the Web
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✈️ “Be bored in the airport”: Travelers share the airport hacks they swear by for stress-free holiday flights
🚙 “Fighting for my life”: Driver blinded by super-bright headlights hits 2.5 million views
🍟 McDonald’s launches The Grinch Meal with Grinch-themed socks for the holidays
🤱 This mom used “gentle parenting” for 10 years. Now, she’s trying to undo it
🍪 Shoppers hate the new version of Costco’s Danish cookie tins this year
🔥 Hot on the Dot
This was the most-read story on the Daily Dot yesterday:
The Wachowskis can disagree all they want, but language doesn’t freeze in amber. “Red pill,” “blue pill,” “black pill,” and “white pill” evolved into cultural shorthand because people found them useful, not because anyone waited for the original creators to approve. Once an idea hits the public square, it becomes part of the shared vocabulary, and people repurpose it to fit real political, cultural, or philosophical debates.
Conservatives using “red pill” as a metaphor didn’t break anything. It stuck because it works. That’s how language, memes, and symbols actually move through a culture: utility beats authorship every time.
If anything, the fact that the terms took on a life of their own just proves they resonated far beyond the narrow frame of the movie.