A long time friend put up an article about Islam on her Facebook page. I saw it and noticed there were some points a person (not my friend) was making on it which not only did I disagree with, but were objectively incorrect about Islam. I decided to step in and address the person, and it did not take long to realize that the more I genuinely tried to provide facts and useful information, the more this person just pushed back with his opinion:
This is only part of the conversation.
What stood out to me most in this conversation was my frustration of how the other person would neither consider the sources I was presenting nor would he present any sources himself. Having had many conversations with people who hold similar views to his, I took time to present a good number of news articles, books, and videos to show where the views I have about Islam come from so that he could see for himself. Even if he did not agree with my views, at the very least he would have to take his disagreement to the sources which I pulled this information from and then confront his disagreement from that point. My hope was that even if he did not agree with me, he at least would be open to considering an alternative viewpoint because not only is there an abundance of evidence and I am well-qualified in Islam, but that somebody took the time to prepare and present this information to him so that he could have it at least "on file" if he ever decided to look at it.
But that did not happen. Instead, he responded with sarcasm and derision, completely refusing to address anything I had said and instead choosing to insult me. After several attempts, I ended the conversation because it was clear this person was not interested in discussion, but was a miniature tyrant so convinced of his own opinion and yet so devoid of any fact or knowledge that he could use, out of his arrogance he would answer his opinions with more opinions.
In the most famous scene from the movie The Matrix, Lawrence Fishburne (Morpheus) gives Keanu Reeves (Neo) a chance to learn the truth or reject it. If Keanu takes the "blue pill," he wakes up and life goes on as normal, and he remembers nothing of what happened. But if he takes the "red pill," he gets to see the truth of how the world really works, or in the words of Fishburne, "you see how deep the rabbit hole goes."
This conversation I had was in a very minor way a reflection of the "blue pill" versus "red pill" mentalities. What made the person who disagreed with me of the "blue pill" mindset was not his simple disagreement- most people come to learn about sharp truths of life after having previously held the opposite views. It was his persistent refusal to consider another viewpoint in light of the fact that said viewpoint has an abundance of facts to support it while he could not provide a single fact outside of his own opinion to support his views. I offered him the "red pill," and when presented with the chance to take it he rejected it, choosing instead, with full knowledge, to remain in the world of his opinions and refuse to investigate when the obvious facts indicate the contrary.
Almost nobody is ever "red pilled" or "blue pilled" in a perpetual sense because human beings, as St. Thomas Aquinas noted in the Summa, are beings who so long as we are growing closer to Christ are supposted to transform our potentiality into actuality. There is no potentiality in God because God is all actuality- He is all that was, is and ever will be, and as man becomes more like Him, we are continually transforming to become more like He who made us. This is the basic concept behind being "red pilled," as it is an act as much as it is a process where man's understanding of the truth increases and the deceptions which surrounds him and he partakes of are gradually eliminated.
Taking the "red pill" is often times difficult because it means learning about and accepting truth, and truth is many times an ugly, scary thing. That is why so many people prefer to take the "blue pill," because they do not want to deal with the discomfort that the red pill will eventually cause. Such a reaction is normal. However, man has free will, and the proper use of his free will is to choose to do what is right and good, and since man was made for the truth, if he wants to act in a way that accords with his created nature, he must choose truth even if it is painful, for "the truth will set (you) free."
For many years, Walid and Thedore and independently, I spoke and wrote about matters pertaining to the existential danger of Islam, and for many years, people did not want to accept this. Many still do not, but there is far more conversation about it than back in the 1990s, when most people neither knew about nor cared a hint about Islam at all and could not be convinced otherwise.
Nobody likes these guys
Giving people the "red pill" about Islam has become much easier thanks to mass media and the actions of the Muslims themselves. It is possible among some but impossible for most to maintain a lie such as "Islam is a religion of peace" when Muslims are rioting, burning, raping, murdering, and blowing up people and things right in your own backyard. There is only so long that anybody will tolerate that nonsense until they change their minds. What is more difficult is when the matter possesses an air of respectability and it sounds like it makes sense.
This is not the answer to Islam
I refer you to our recent research over the past six months into the rise of a new National Socialism. This has been a huge "red pill" journey for all of us, and not because we were not aware of the evils of National Socialism, but in how National Socialism is rising again an attempting to usher in a new anti-Christian neo-paganism using Islam a rallying point after which, as history has shown, these same people will ally with the Muslims in order to propagate their views throughout Europe and wage a terrible war against the Faith. That is a terrifying and what would seem to be an outlandish thought, but as we have emphasized and shown through our research is not outlandish at all. Just like in the conversation I had with that person, the preponderance of evidence in support of a new National Socialism was so abundant that there was no way we could ignore or merely dismiss it as an anomaly.
The "counter-jihad" movement is very deep...
It was something that, while strange, was something that we had to investigate. When we began to investigate it was when we discovered how so much of what truly is "red pill" information for people about Islam is actually being used to feed people a "blue pill." This bait-and-switch deception is not in the denial of Islamic violence, but rather using the violence of Islam to push people to accept that the answer to Europe and America's problems is not Christ and a return to His holy Church, but rather a renewed, militarized ethno-nationalist paganism.
Hitler's ghost is alive and well, and has emerged once more
A friend of mine who is a convert to the Catholic Faith from a Pentecostal background described the difference between the Catholic and Protestant salvation concepts like this- Pentecostals say that you are saved once, and if you sin you never were really saved, whereas Catholics say that we are saved by choosing to follow Christ, we are being saved by amending our lives to be more pious each day, and our prayer is that we will be saved because salvation is a gift and not an entitlement. Likewise, being "red pilled" is not a single act after which a man knows the truth and if he errs it is because he never really knew it, but that he knows the truth, he is learning the truth, and by the grace of God one day he will understand that truth in its entirety.
Being "red pilled" is a continual process because it is a state of mind that pushes for analysis, deep thinking, and a willingness to admit when one is wrong.. Don't get stuck in your own head- don't take the blue pill.
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