Matrix co-creator Lilly Wachowski has opened up about what it's been like to see her magnum opus The Matrix be co-opted by the far-right.
Anywhere you go in online spaces for the past 10-15 years, right-wing weirdos talk about being "red-pilled," a reference to the film's plot point in which lead character Neo is offered a red pill that will enlighten him to the realities of the systems ruling our lives, or a blue pill that will allow him to stay ignorant.
Right wingers have since co-opted the "red pill" moment to be about awakening to the supposed evils of the Democratic Party, feminism, LGBTQ+ and especially trans rights, and racial justice—basically anything on the right side of history.
Which is, of course, missing the point entirely—or more accurately, purposefully skewing it. And in a new interview, Lilly spoke openly about how it has impacted her..
- YouTubeyoutu.be
Speaking to comedian and podcaster Caleb Hearon, Wachowski said that painful though it may have been, the twisting of her and her sister's work wasn't exactly surprising.
“Right-wing ideology appropriates absolutely everything... [The far-right] mutate them for their own propaganda, for their own to obfuscate what the real message is.... This is what fascism does."
There are myriad examples of course: "woke," "critical race theory," and "DEI" are just a handful of recent examples of things the right-wing has appropriated and completely altered the meaning of.
Wachowski went on to say that it has forced her to "let go" of her work.
"People are gonna interpret it however they interpret it.”
“I look at all of the crazy, mutant theories around The Matrix films and the crazy ideologies that those films helped create, and I just go, ‘What are you doing? No! That’s wrong!’"
"But I have to let it go to some extent… You’re never gonna be able to make absolutely every person believe what you initially intended.”
In the case of The Matrix, the original intent of the film was to examine the experience of being transgender—both Lana and Lilly Wachowski are trans women—so the film was already twisted from its true meaning from the very beginning.
This is because, in Wachowski's words, "the corporate world wasn't ready" for that message, so the film transformed into the story we know today.
In any case, right-wingers were immediately furious about Wachowski's words, with many attempting to explain why she is wrong about her own film.
For others whose brains are still intact, Wachowski's take on the "red pill movement" sparked a wider conversation about the way the right twists everything it can to fit its fascist agenda.
"Right wingers forever getting so close to the point and somehow flying right over it always amuses me." —u/FlashyPaladin
"Not wrong. Fascism tends to appropriate popular concepts and themes in order to sell their brand to the public."
"An example of this would be the full name of the Nazi Party: The National Socialist German Workers Party. The Nazis appropriated certain socialist messages and ideas even though Nazi ideology is inherently opposed to socialism."—u/historicalgeek71
"I think right-wing 'interpretations' of things that are clearly not right wing, is an intentional move by the right wing to co-op anything that makes people think outside the right-wing box."
"Almost similar to Keith Urban performing Pink Pony Club at Trump’s Mar-a-lago after leaving his wife for a 25 year old." —u/g00fyg00ber741
Never underestimate right-wing thought leaders' talent for for skewing everything, and their devotees' talent for falling for their propaganda.
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