Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump appear to have triggered one of the creators of the sci-fi film "The Matrix" after the Tesla founder and CEO made a reference that many interpreted as a call for liberals to open their eyes and become conservatives.
“Take the red pill,” he tweeted.
“In the movie, Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburne) reveals to the protagonist Neo (Keanu Reeves) that he’s been living in a computer simulation,” Variety explains. “He offers Neo a choice: Take a blue pill and go back to his life and forget about everything, or take a red pill to learn the truth about the Matrix and his fake reality.”
Lately the phrase has been used to refer to conservative political beliefs, however. “It can now mean shifting one’s political alignment to the right, and it’s often used in Internet forums related to Donald Trump or men’s rights groups,” Variety states.
Ivanka Trump, who officially changed her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in 2018, retweeted Musk’s comment, adding, “Taken!”
Taken! https://t.co/Ng0S2OFC93
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) May 17, 2020
These tweets prompted the film’s co-creator and director Lilly Wachowski to respond, “F*** both of you.”
Musk has been outspoken lately in response to draconian stay-at-home measures by local Democratic officials in California. He was praised by conservatives for his defiance of those rules, opening up his Tesla plant, asking, “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
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Last month, he called lockdown orders across the country “fascist.”
“This is the time to think about the future, and also to ask, is it right to infringe upon people’s rights as what is happening right now?” Musk said on Tesla’s Q1 2020 earnings call.
“I think the people are going to be very angry about this and are very angry. It’s like somebody should be, if somebody wants to stay in the house that’s great, they should be allowed to stay in the house and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say that they cannot leave their house, and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom. Give people back their g****n freedom.”
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