People are only just realizing the dark origin of ‘drinking the Kool-Aid’ phrase
“Drinking the Kool-Aid” has become a common expression in American vernacular, but the phrase has sinister origins with roots in a violent cult and mass murder.
The phrase comes from a tragedy that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana, where more than 900 people were killed in a mass murder-suicide plot.
The chilling event occurred on November 18, 1978, when cult leader Jim Jones forced his followers to drink a powdery fruit drink laced with deadly cyanide.
At the time, it was reported that the drink used as a catalyst for poison was Kool-Aid, which eventually led to the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid.”
Strangely enough, the powdery substance used was actually Flavor Aid, a less popular brand of sugary powdered drinks.
Many Americans have forgotten the Jonestown massacre, but the expression associated with it lives on. A post on Reddit went viral as people began to realize the creepy origins of the phrase.
A Redditor asked under the ‘Ask an American’ thread what Kool-Aid was and where the popular expression came from.
“Don’t drink the Kool-aid is a grim/dark humorous warning to someone else,” read one comment.
‘It’s a very good insult to use, IMO it’s us saying ‘You’re so stupid for believing in something so dangerously idiotic, it’s on the same level as dangerous that has killed others’ without actually saying so ,” said another. .
A Kool-Aid-like drink was used to administer poison to more than 900 people at a compound in Jonestown
Jim Jones is a notorious cult leader known as the mastermind behind a mass murder-suicide plot
Redditors were shocked to learn the gruesome origins of the phrase, with one commenting: ‘I had no idea. That’s wild.’
“There is nothing about Jonestown that isn’t the complete darkness of the human soul that we naturally recoil from in fear and loathing at a fundamental level,” another added.
The tragic events that unfolded in 1978 came after infamous cult leader Jim Jones rose to prominence in Indianapolis, Indiana in the 1950s and 1960s for being a notable religious figure.
He eventually founded the Wings of Deliverance in 1955, which became known as the People’s Temple.
Jones preached against segregation and became known for his progressive causes. He served as head of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission from 1960 to 1962, setting up homes for the elderly and those struggling with mental illness.
What started as a beacon of social change soon began to take a dark and menacing turn.
After the Church moved from Indianapolis to San Francisco, California, in 1965, rumors began to circulate about abuse within the temple.
By then, Jones had convinced hundreds of people to join his church and congregations were popping up in major cities.
As allegations of fraud and abuse mounted, Jones hatched a plan to take his ministry to a commune in Jonestown.
In 1977, hundreds of clerics traveled to the compound. They established a community, but Jones’ brutal leadership manifested itself in a mini-society where temple members were consistently abused, an FBI investigation found.
Kool-Aid was quickly linked to the Jonestown massacre after the 1978 tragedy
Hundreds of bodies were discovered after People’s Temple members drank poison
The compound operated for years before the mass murder-suicide occurred
Concern grew in the US about what was happening at the compound, eventually leading California Congressman Leo Ryan to intervene.
Ryan, along with a group of news reporters and government officials, embarked on a mission to Jonestown in November 1978. They interviewed members of the Temple and coordinated an escape plan for those who asked to return to the US with the group.
While waiting for their plane on the runway, the group saw a dump truck approaching from Jonestown carrying several armed men on Nov. 18, the FBI said.
A Peoples Temple loyalist named Larry Layton shot at the group, killing Ryan and four others.
Tim Reiterman, a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, managed to escape the gunfire and later described the gruesome scene in the newspaper.
‘Although I couldn’t see over the tall bushes, I heard the shots become less frequent. Then there were only a few. Blood was pouring from my arm, so I took off my belt and closed the biggest wounds,” Reiterman wrote.
‘I heard a few more shots and saw the tractor driving away. After they left, I crawled out of the bushes and saw five bodies surrounding the plane. Other people were injured.”
Layton was arrested by Guyanese authorities and the rest of the survivors were sheltered in army tents.
Jim Jones often attended meetings and spoke about integration before leaving for Jonestown with his followers
Hundreds of people, mostly Americans, lived on the site in Jonestown before their horrific deaths in November 1978.
Rev. Jim Jones became known for his preaching in the 1950s before founding Peoples Temple
Stephan Gandhi Jones was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. He survived the Jonestown massacre and is now the father of three daughters
Congressman Leo Ryan was murdered after trying to help Peoples Temple members escape to the US
As the terrifying scene on the runway began, chilling events unfolded in the commune.
Jones feared retaliation for his crimes and that same day he ordered the hundreds of members to drink the Flavor Aid, laced with poison. Those who refused were shot. Children were reportedly told to ingest the poison first.
Several survivors of the mass tragedy, who escaped or left the commune on November 18, spoke out in 2018 on the 40th anniversary of the tragedy.
Stephan Gandhi Jones, the biological son of Jim Jones and his wife Marceline, survived the massacre while playing in a basketball tournament that day.
“I focused my anger on my father and those around him, instead of addressing me,” he recalled when discussing his grief over the tragedy.
Questions remain about how the mass murder-suicide plot was carried out and how Jones was able to keep the Temple in business for so long, but many still remember the infamous Flavor Aid drink that murdered hundreds of people in the rainforests of Guyana.