{"id":111356,"date":"2021-10-10T13:45:45","date_gmt":"2021-10-10T20:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=111356"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:51:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T00:51:49","slug":"drinking-the-kool-aid-as-a-tool-of-education","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=111356","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDrinking the Kool-Aid\u201d as a Tool of Education:
An editorial<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

I acknowledge at the outset: the phrase \u201cdrinking the Kool-Aid\u201d is still out there \u2013 used thousands of times a years in both print and electronic media; in the context of business, sports, and especially politics; in reporting news events, in opinion pieces, in blogposts, and especially letters to the editor \u2013 and it is still offensive. Any attempts to eradicate it from the English language would be a quixotic venture, however. It is engrained as deeply now as any of a number of other clich\u00e9s or shorthand references, such as \u201crule of thumb,\u201d \u201ctit for tat,\u201d \u201cthe gloves are off,\u201d or even \u201cbaker\u2019s dozen.\u201d Just as those sayings, the Kool-Aid expression was born in violence. Moreover \u2013 again, just as those sayings \u2013 most people who use it have no idea where it came from.<\/p>\n

Quite often, the use is benign. \u201cDrinking the corporate Kool-Aid\u201d \u2013 insert your own corporate name there \u2013 is often considered an expression of loyalty. \u201cDrinking the sports team Kool-Aid\u201d \u2013 same insert \u2013 suggests blind, unwavering, enthusiastic fandom, and even when used against an opponent\u2019s team, there\u2019s a sense of good-natured bonhomie associated with it. Only when the phrase enters the political arena does it become more of a cudgel than a pom-pom. You don\u2019t have to Google too many \u201cMAGA Kool-Aid\u201d or \u201csocialist Democrat Kool-Aid\u201d references to realize that.<\/p>\n

This is not intended to suggest that the repetition of the phrase has lost its ability to wound those associated with the Jonestown tragedy, or that we should necessarily give it a pass, especially when a friend who you\u2019d think would know better, drops it out of the blue into a conversation.<\/p>\n

And yet, there has been a shift. Perhaps it is due to the very fact that so few people know of its origin, perhaps because of a writer\u2019s own personal discovery of where the phrase came from, or perhaps even because of the times we live in. Whatever the reason, in recent years, there have a number of instances in which an article attempts to contextualize the phrase, or informs the readers of the facts behind it. And even if the details are garbled, or the adjectives are lurid or in themselves loaded \u2013 \u201cmadman cult leader Jim Jones\u201d \u2013 there is still an effort.<\/p>\n

Consider a few examples from this past year.<\/p>\n