r/todayilearned • u/Melenduwir • 7d ago

TIL the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid", although associated with the Jonestown murder-suicides, actually originated in the Tom Wolfe book "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" about Ken Kesey and the "Merry Pranksters". Jonestown actually used Flavor Aid.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid
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u/pbmm1 7d ago

What’s a merry prankster though?

“The first known use of the phrase was in a passage from the 1968 non-fiction book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe, where it is used by Clair Brush, who works for the Los Angeles Free Press, to describe an unsuccessful attempt to stop someone with a poor mental health record from drinking Kool-Aid laced with LSD, who then subsequently had a bad psychedelic experience. The Atlantichypothesized that this story, which caused "many Americans [to become] familiar with the idea of being urged to drink Kool-Aid containing ... unusual chemicals", contributed to the misconception that Kool-Aid was used in Jonestown.”

Oh interesting

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u/These_Consequences 6d ago

That makes a heck of a lot more sense than the exclusive Jonestown sourcing, considering the way this phrase is actually used. A person who "drinks the Kool-Aid" at work doesn't commit suicide, but totally accepts to the corporate culture. I guess that lemming-like final step could fit, but mainly, it makes more sense to think of them as tripping.

I've been harboring cognitive dissonance all these years. Huh.

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u/Any-Ask563 6d ago

I think an important lack of context too is that the “kool-aid” drinking associated with Jonestown wasn’t consensual… most were FORCED to drink the, ughh, flavor-aid… were aware of the outcome and didn’t want any part of it. Speaks to the cult mentality of them losing everyone they know around them and social safety net… it was much more murder-suicide than mass suicide. Worth a read if you’re into the occult or just learning that pop-journalism usually only scratches the surface

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u/Complete_Entry 6d ago

Nothing occult about it. Jones was a ghoul, no fucking doubt, but there wasn't much mysticism in his bullshit.

He coopted good old evangelism.

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u/Archarchery 6d ago edited 6d ago

And communism. Whatever Jones could think of that would get people to obey him unconditionally. At one point in the late 1960s he got into some hot water after a religion reporter wrote an article revealing that he was claiming he could bring people back from the dead and some of his followers were worshipping him as God, so he did a hard pivot and started recasting himself as a Chairman Mao type figure and tapping into the left-wing radical scene in San Francisco. He'd lure in some followers with phony faith healings, while informing other followers that they were only using religion to lead poor people to Communism. He was an amazing conman.