(idiomatic) To understand the world in its previously unknown reality.
2004 September 9,Kawasaki, Guy,The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, Portfolio, ISBN 9781591840565, OL8858151M, page 92:
If you want to be a successful bootstrapper, you have to take the red pill and determine how deep the rabbit hole called your organization goes.
2005 June 1,Allen, Terry,Dugout, University of Texas Press, ISBN 9780292706866, OL10293355M, page 172:
As much as we, our generation, start to believe this fictionalized new version of reality we become complicit.... The only way out is to take the Red pill and see what things really look like.
2005 December 1,The Black Dot,Hip Hop Decoded: From Its Ancient Origin To Its Modern Day Matrix, ISBN 9780977235711, OL25415227M, page 144:
In this day and time, we must begin to take the “red pill” and open our first eye to see what's really going on, and who's behind this madness involving Hip Hop videos.
For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:take the red pill.
From the plot of the film The Matrix (1999), whose protagonist is offered a red pill which wakes him from an illusionary simulated world into the dystopian reality.