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HandWiki. Drinking the Kool-Aid. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35928 (accessed on 20 September 2026).
HandWiki. Drinking the Kool-Aid. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35928. Accessed September 20, 2026.
HandWiki. "Drinking the Kool-Aid" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35928 (accessed September 20, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, November 23). Drinking the Kool-Aid. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/35928
HandWiki. "Drinking the Kool-Aid." Encyclopedia. Web. 23 November, 2022.
Drinking the Kool-Aid
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The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid

"Drinking the Kool-Aid" is an expression used to refer to a person who believes in a possibly doomed or dangerous idea because of perceived potential high rewards. The phrase often carries a negative connotation. It can also be used ironically or humorously to refer to accepting an idea or changing a preference due to popularity, peer pressure, or persuasion. In recent years it has evolved further to mean extreme dedication to a cause or purpose, so extreme that one would "drink the Kool-Aid" and die for the cause. The phrase originates from events in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978, in which over 900 members of the Peoples Temple movement died. The movement's leader, Jim Jones, called a mass meeting at the Jonestown pavilion after the murder of U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and others in nearby Port Kaituma. Jones proposed "revolutionary suicide" by way of ingesting a powdered drink mix lethally laced with cyanide and other drugs which had been prepared by his aides.

kool-aid cyanide drugs

References

  1. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
  2. Eric Zorn (2008-11-18). "Change of Subject, "Have you drunk the 'Kool-Aid' Kool-Aid". Chicago Tribune, www.chicagotribune.com. http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/11/have-you-drunk-the-kool-aid-kool-aid.html. 
  3. Krause, Charles A. (Dec 17, 1978). "Jonestown Is an Eerie Ghost Town Now". Washington Post. "Along the muddy path that served as a sidewalk for much of the commune, other reminders of the life and death that were Jonestown lie half buried in the fertile soil. A pair of woman's eyeglasses, a towel, a pair of shorts, packets of unopened Flavor-Aid lie scattered about waiting for the final cleanup that may one day return Jonestown to the tidy, if overcrowded, little community it once was." 
  4. *Kihn, Martin (2007-12-19). "Don't Drink the Grape-Flavored Sugar Water...". Fast Company. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/92/debunk.html.  Al Thomkins (2003-11-13). "Al's Morning Meeting, "Thursday Edition: Clearing Kool-Aid's Name"". The Poynter Institute. http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=54353. 
  5. "Kool Aid/Flavor Aid: Inaccuracies vs. Facts Part 7". https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=93983. 
  6. "Guyana inquest". http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GuyanaInquest.pdf. 
  7. Hatfield, Larry D. (8 November 1998). "Utopian nightmare. Jonestown: What did we learn?". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1998/11/08/NEWS4041.dtl. 
  8. Richardson, James D. (2014-11-18). "The phrase 'drank the Kool-Aid' is completely offensive. We should stop saying it immediately.". https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/18/the-phrase-drank-the-koolaid-is-completely-offensive-we-should-stop-saying-it-immediately/. 
  9. "Why 900 Died in Guyana' by Carey Winfrey . The New York Times, February 25, 1979 https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/25/archives/why-900-died-in-guyana.html
  10. "How many children and minors died in Jonestown? What were their ages?" Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Department of Religious Studies, San Diego State University. http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35332
  11. Goering, Laurie. "Guyanese Jungle Reclaiming Jonestown" (in en-US). https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-05-10-9705100253-story.html. 
  12. "'Can't Sleep.' 'Beyond Imagination.' What It Was Like to Work on the Jonestown Massacre Clean-Up" (in en). https://time.com/longform/jonestown-aftermath/. 
  13. Hyer, Marjorie. Pax Christi Group Opposes SALT II. 9 December 1978. Washington Post.
  14. Drinking the Kool-Aid: The Cultural Transformation of a Tragedy , Rebecca Moore, American Academy of Religion/ Western Region, St. Mary’s College of California, 26 March 2002 http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16584
  15. "Criticism of Black Leaders". The New York Times. November 20, 1984. https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/20/us/criticism-of-black-leaders.html. 
  16. Margolick, David (January 20, 1989). "Law at the Bar: Lawyer for striking air traffic controllers won back 60 jobs but suffered personal loss". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/20/us/law-bar-lawyer-for-striking-air-traffic-controllers-won-back-60-jobs-but.html. 
  17. Fishburne, Rodes (April 29, 2000). "The Shadow in Silicon Valley". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/29/opinion/the-shadow-in-silicon-valley.html. 
  18. Arianna Huffington (August 16, 2002). "Wacko in Waco". Salon.com. http://dir.salon.com/story/news/col/huff/2002/08/16/waco/index.html. 
  19. "Feeling Sorry for O'Reilly". Fox News. 2005-09-09. http://www.foxnews.com/story/2005/09/09/feeling-sorry-for-oreilly/. 
  20. Finch, Jake (April 1, 2009). "Newsweek editor addresses Reagan Forum". Ventura County Star. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2009/apr/01/newsweek-editor-addresses-reagan-forum/. 
  21. Daum, Meghan (November 17, 2011). "Don't 'drink the Kool-Aid'". Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-daum-koolaid-20111117,0,347333.column. 
  22. Jargon Madness, Forbes, January 25, 2012. https://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/annoying-business-jargons-12.html
  23. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54094559
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