It wasn't Kool-Aid they drank at Jonestown, it was Flavor Aid.

[norml]

Jim Jones



Failed monkey salesman.

Despite his sociopathy, one must give Jim Jones mad props for loyalty and people management skills. First, he transforms his seemingly mainstream San Francisco congregation into a full-blown religious cult. Next he convinces the government of Guyana to give him 300 acres of South American jungle, and relocates 1,100 cult members to this distant hellhole. Finally, in 1978 after it all goes horribly wrong, Jones still manages to convince 900 of them to swallow poison in massively parallel suicide, the likes of which the world had never seen.

Arrested in a cruisy restroom in Los Angeles.

By the way, it wasn't Kool-Aid. It was Flavor Aid®. Different company altogether.


snip


http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/cult/reverend-jim-jones/

[MADem]

1. POOR Republicans drink Flavor Aid, and believe that one day

they will be able to afford KoolAid, because their tax cuts are gonna get bigger and bigger....

[mcscajun]

2. True...but way too late to matter.

the Kool-Aid meme is firmly entrenched on both side of the political spectrum.

Like photocopying something is referred to as Xeroxing.

The brand name has overtaken the generic meaning and swallowed it whole.

[meisje]

3. I've had the medical grade flavor aid once and it blew my mind!

[JVS]

4. Too cheap to spring for the good stuff!

When my cult does that, I'm going all out. Château Latour all around!

[Book Lover]

5. The Kool-Aid thing is a reference to the

Electric Kool-Aid Acid Trip, not Jonestown.

http://www.tomwolfe.com/KoolAid.html

[Webster Green]

6. No way!...

The reference is to Jonestown and the cult followers of Jim Jones.

The Acid Tests were the exact opposite that cult crappola.


Demand resignations! Now!

[Book Lover]

8. Believe as you like

Conflation is the culprit here.

[norml]

7. No, it's about Jonestown and how true believers will swallow anything.

The Electric Kook-Aid Acid Trip was fun, Jonestown was not.

[Book Lover]

9. No; see above

Cultural references, loosed from their moorings, conflate and change. The original conversational reference was to the Wolfe novel, later the Jonestown event was conflated in the common phraseology.

[daninthemoon]

10. When were you born? It is Jonestown all the way.

[Book Lover]

18. What the hell does that matter?

It's none of your business because it doesn't matter. If I had nothing to do all day, I would go to the library and collect the chapter and verse development of the phrase. But whatever, I'm too young to know in your eyes, obviously.

[daninthemoon]

21. Chill...You brought it up JR.

[Webster Green]

28. Are you nuts?

I can assure you that the use of the term "Kool-Aid drinkers", on this and other progressive boards, is a reference to Jonestown and describes repubs as cult followers who abandon all reasoning and logic, to follow their leader.

The hippies who were drinking the Kool-Aid at the acid tests were on an adventure and a quest, not blindly following the directions of some idiotic cult leader.

I don't need to go to the library, because I lived the adventure, and happen to have a copy of 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test', signed by Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey, and Ken Babbs.

So there!

Demand resignations! Now!

[Webster Green]

11. That's simply not true, I don't know where you are getting that idea

The frequent Kool-Aid references, targeted at bush-bots have nothing to do with the Acid Tests, or the novel.

You are absolutely wrong about the reference. Have you anything to back up your argument, other than the words Kool-Aid?


Demand Resignations now!

[Book Lover]

19. See above

You would do better to knock off the color, bold formatting, and increased type size. They make you look foolish.

[RagingInMiami]

22. I don't agree

And I don't see where you are referencing to that proves your point.

[Webster Green]

27. Foolish?

WTF is your problem, anyway?


Demand resignations! Now!

[Shakespeare]

29. You are correct. n/t

[melody]

12. Wolfe is assuming uniform causation when it probably has multiple causes

The "kool-aid" reference (pardon us, Flavor Aid...yuck) has -- in my time -- been a reference to Jonestown. I think everyone who has said that, has meant Jonestown. Each person who said it is as much an expert on their source as Wolfe is.

[Webster Green]

14. This has nothing to do with Wolfe...or the novel...

He wrote a book about Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters, the Acid Tests, & their cross-country trip on the psychedelic bus 'Further'. He named the novel "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests", because the fucking punch was spiked with LSD in 1965 & 1966. That's it!

Jeebus!....Guess you had to be there!

The use of the term "Kool-Aid drinkers" to describe repukes is a reference to Jonestown.


Demand Resignations now!

[melody]

16. No, I said Wolfe's assertion was that...I disagreed.

[LostinVA]

24. Every reference I find says it's from Jonestown

And mentions nothing about the book. And I checked over 20 references. I'm 40 and remember when Jonestown happened (I was in 9th grade), and I also remember hearing the expression some time later.

[DanCa]

13. I bet they thought the razor blades were really chocolate bars

Wrapped in tin foil like the easter coins.

[nonconformist]

15. Kool-aid is a generic term now, like Kleenex and Chapstick

and countless others.

[NuttyFluffers]

17. ding ding ding ding! we have a winner!

because we all know that people *never* use brand names as generic terms, hence specificity is needed otherwise the masses are lost. :sarcasm:

i remember getting one of my first deleted posts because of some inane flame war (more like unpleasant static cling) about how it *must* be refered to as Flavor Aid and our mislabeling is part of the destruction of meaning, blah, blah, blah...

so yeah, interesting TRIVIA, but irrelevant to the euphemism. language isn't about accuracy as it is about communication. everyone (who's over a certain age, i think) gets the "drank the kool-aid" say.

[RagingInMiami]

20. And don't forget Band Aid

[norml]

25. I don't care. For the sake of accuracy, and to help differentiate us from

them, I'm going to call them "Flavor Aid Drinkers" from now on.

[Bridget Burke]

23. Whatever they drank, everyone in Jonestown did NOT commit suicide.

Quite a few of them refused & were shot. But they were mostly poor & black, so the media didn't get into details.

[Gruenemann]

26. FLAVOUR aid if you must be 100% accurate.

They use the British spelling in Guyana.