{"id":33166,"date":"2013-07-25T16:36:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T16:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=33166"},"modified":"2026-02-20T15:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:14:34","slug":"koolintro","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=33166","title":{"rendered":"A Summary of &#8220;Drinking the Kool-Aid&#8221; (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>This website has <a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=67174\">a collection of articles and reflections<\/a> on \u201cKool-Aid\u201d as an image and as an expression, but the purpose of this column is to show how and where the expression in used, especially in American business (which is believed to have coined the term), in politics, and in sports.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/..\/..\/images\/jtr9\/06-10a-koolaid.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" alt=\"The Physics of Passion\" src=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/06-10a-koolaid_t.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"242\" \/><\/a>Perhaps the best description of how the expression plays in American society which we found within the past year comes from a (now defunct) somewhat sardonic blogsite at <em>Creating Passionate Users<\/em>. In a piece entitled &#8220;The Physics of Passion: The Koolaid Point,&#8221; the blogger known as Kathy writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You don\u2019t\u00a0<em>really<\/em>\u00a0have passionate users until someone starts accusing them of \u201cdrinking the koolaid.\u201d You might have happy users, even\u00a0<em>loyal<\/em>\u00a0users, but it\u2019s the truly passionate that piss off others enough to motivate them to say something. Where there is passion, there is\u00a0<em>always<\/em>\u00a0anti-passion&#8230; or rather\u00a0<em>passion in the hate dimension.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you create passionate users, you have to\u00a0<em>expect<\/em>\u00a0passionate detractors. You should\u00a0<em>welcome<\/em>\u00a0their appearance in blogs, forums, and user groups. It means you\u2019ve arrived. Forget the\u00a0<em>tipping<\/em>\u00a0point \u2013 if you want to measure passion, look for the\u00a0<em>koolaid<\/em>\u00a0point.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":33245,"menu_order":17,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-33166","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33166","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=33166"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133859,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33166\/revisions\/133859"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/33245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}