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/BrokenEyeReborn 7d ago

Technically Jonestown used both brands, because they couldn't get enough of either for their needs. They mostly used Flavor Aid, though.

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u/Vonneguts_Ghost 6d ago

This way we can be fair and asign the blame proportionally.