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/rifleshooter 6d ago

From someone alive then: No, it didn't. NOBODY used that phrase pre-Reverend Jim.

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u/Fluid-Bet6223 6d ago

Yeah and the Wikipedia backs that up. Using the phrase to mean “buying into a crazy cultish idea” definitely started with Jonestown.