{"id":29326,"date":"2013-07-25T17:01:23","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T17:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=29326"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:54:08","slug":"koolintro","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=29326","title":{"rendered":"Drinking the Kool-Aid: An Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

The expression \u201cdrinking the Kool-Aid\u201d is now deeply embedded into American slang. While its origins are painfully understood by most of the people who visit this site, it\u2019s also true that no one knows when or in what context it first entered our slang lexicon. As time passes, two other characteristics of slang will occur: its earliest meaning will morph into a multitude of derivatives \u2013 indeed, that has already begun to happen \u2013 and fewer and fewer people who use it will know where it came from. If there is a recent shift in its usage, it is that the anonymity of the blogosphere seemingly encourages often uncivil \u2013 if not viciously angry \u2013 discourse, and many writers have increasingly adopted the phrase as a weapon of attack against those who dare to disagree with them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"06-01\"<\/a>\u2022 The most public conversation of the phrase in recent years came in February, in response to a decision by Hacienda Mexican Restaurants near South Bend, Indiana to erect a billboard promoting itself as a cult with better Kool-Aid (see story here<\/a><\/span>).<\/p>\n

Several other stories on the Hacienda\u2019s Kool-Aid billboards appeared in both national and local media. They include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cEatery pulls billboard ads using Jonestown \u2018cult\u2019 reference,\u201d USA Today<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Feb 22, 2011
\n\u2022 \u201cHacienda\u2019s Jonestown billboard snuffed out,\u201d AdWeek<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Feb 22, 2011
\n\u2022 \u201cIndiana Restaurant Pulls Billboards With Jonestown Massacre References,” Huffington Post<\/em>, <\/em>Feb 21, 2011.
\n\u2022 \u201c\u2018To die for\u2019: Hacienda restaurant chain pulls offensive billboard ads making fun of horrific Jonestown massacre,\u201d The Daily Mail<\/a>, Feb 21, 2011<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2022 A new book, Don\u2019t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid<\/em><\/a> by Marybeth Hicks, claims that the American political left has hijacked the national education system and is rewriting history to make it \u201cpolitically correct.\u201d The result is that school children are being brainwashed, just as Jim Jones\u2019 followers in Guyana were. The book has received several glowing reviews from bloggers and websites on the right \u2013 including Rebecca Hagelin\u2019s postings in The Patriot Post<\/a> and The Washington Times<\/a> \u2013 and negative assessments from the left, like The Huntington News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This listing<\/a> presents other recent efforts by writers or bloggers to consider the context of the phrase itself, to explain its origin, or to argue for the care people should take in using it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The expression \u201cdrinking the Kool-Aid\u201d is now deeply embedded into American slang. While its origins are painfully understood by most of the people who visit this site, it\u2019s also true that no one knows when or in what context it first entered our slang lexicon. As time passes, two other characteristics of slang will occur: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":29485,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29326","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29326"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134073,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29326\/revisions\/134073"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}