{"id":34292,"date":"2013-07-28T21:48:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-28T21:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=34292"},"modified":"2026-02-26T14:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:44:18","slug":"kooldirectory","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=34292","title":{"rendered":"Drinking the Kool-Aid: A (Partial) 2012 Directory"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Editor\u2019s note<\/strong>: the jonestown report made note every year in its 13 editions between 2007 and 2019 of the numerous articles, op-ed pieces, and commentaries that specifically mention the use of the phrase “Drinking the Kool-Aid,” even if it isn\u2019t the focus of the entire piece. Even though the report suspended the annual listing beginning in 2020, the references continue on a near daily basis in online media sources.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The expression \u201cdrinking the Kool-Aid\u201d is now deeply embedded into American slang \u2013 often as throwaway and\/or commonly-understood lines in sports, business, and popular culture \u2013 with upwards of a dozen references appearing on news feeds every day. Especially in political arena, the saying has become increasingly weaponized, as partisans on all sides use it to disparage the intellectual capacity and discernment of their opponents.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there have been several serious considerations of the phrase in several commentaries during the past year, including:<\/p>\n

\u201cDrinking the Kool-Aid\u201d in context<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Who are the Kool-Aid Drinkers Now?<\/span><\/b>
\nby Szandor Blestman, Blitz<\/em>, 26 May 2012<\/p>\n

This feature-length discussion of the role of government and corporate media \u2013 considered from a libertarian point of view \u2013\u00a0begins with the origin of the term and continues that it \u201chas become synonymous with people who trust the sources of their information without question. I will stretch this out a bit and make the claim that Kool-Aid drinkers are those who trust anyone or any institution without question and do as they are told because of that trust. Drinking the Kool-Aid kills. It zombifies the human being and removes its ability to blossom into an independent, thoughtful, free living organism able to determine its own fate. It removes free will. It turns a person into a robotic entity that will follow the will of its master right up to the point where its master causes its self destruction. So, who are the Kool-Aid drinkers today? Who are the next in line to have their strings pulled right up to the point where they self destruct?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Daughter: I lost my mother to ‘cult-like’ religious order<\/span><\/b>
\nby Dennis Magee, Waterloo Cedar Falls<\/em> (Iowa) Courier<\/em>, 16 January 2012<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how the situation at Buchanan Abbey plays out, Bobbie Fleming predicts no winners and less joy. Roseanna Gevelinger is lost to her. She will remain out of reach, whatever happens to Ryan St. Anne Scott. Gevelinger is Fleming’s mother. She also is Scott’s faithful follower.\u2026 Gevelinger, now in her mid- to late 80s, connected with Scott at a \u2018traditional\u2019 Roman Catholic community in North Dakota, according to Fleming. \u2018I’ve always felt it was very much cult-like,\u2019 she said of Scott’s religious community. \u2018My mother would literally drink the Kool Aid for him.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cornel West keeps the faith for Occupy Wall Street<\/span><\/b>
\nby Sally Quinn, Washington Post<\/em>, 10 November 2011<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Faith Editor Sally Quinn recently spoke with author, professor, critic and civil right activist Dr. Cornel West to discuss the Occupy Wall Street movement, and other issues of faith and politics. One exchange follows:<\/p>\n

SQ:<\/strong> Does the sadness and greed that you see ever rock your faith?<\/p>\n

CW:<\/strong> Oh sure. I think every rich faith should have a demon of doubt, as TS Eliot used to say. I think that to be a good Christian is to be a God-wrestler, like Jacob in the 32nd chapter of Genesis. You\u2019re wrestling with God all the time. It\u2019s not an accident that the most profound critique of Christianity was written by a Christian named Dostoyevsky. And that critique ought to be a constant companion for every Christian, even as in the end you still make the leap of faith, in the language of Kirkegaard, and hold on for dear life. I think there\u2019s a big difference between drinking the Kool-Aid and being washed with the blood. You don\u2019t want to drink the Kool-Aid of the world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Derivatives, Extensions, and Variations of a Familiar Phrase<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Athlete Spotlight\u2013Lee Lark<\/span><\/b>
\nby Morgan Doyle, The Corsair<\/em> (Santa Monica College, California), 22 November 2011<\/p>\n

In the course of a conversation with basketball player Lee Lark, the interviewer asked what his coach\u2019s favorite phrase was. The answer: \u201c\u2019Drink the Kool-Aid.\u2019 This means for the team to play hard every practice and every game, in order to get something more out of our hard work, besides winning that particular game or doing something great in the particular practice. It means the give-your-all for the final product, which after the season would be to get a scholarship, for example.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kool-Aid and Kulture<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Candy conundrum: How should Wrigley handle Skittles\u2019 link to Trayvon Martin killing?<\/span><\/b>
\nby Candice Choi, The Chicago Sun-Times<\/em>, 15 April 2012. Also here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It could\u2019ve been Starbursts, Twizzlers or Sour Patch Kids. But when Trayvon Martin was fatally shot, he happened to be carrying a bag of Skittles, a product of Chicago-based Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company.\u2026<\/p>\n

Skittles isn\u2019t the first popular food brand to find itself at the center of a major controversy. The term \u201cdon\u2019t drink the Kool-Aid,\u201d has its origins in the 1978 mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, where Reverend Jim Jones led more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple to drink a grape flavored drink laced with cyanide.<\/p>\n

The powdered mix used to make the concoction was actually the lesser known Flavor Aid, based in West Chicago. Even so, executives at Kraft Foods Inc., which owns Kool-Aid, decided to let the matter go, rather than set the record straight. \u201cIt would be like spitting into the wind at this point \u2014 it\u2019s just part of the national lexicon,\u201d says Bridget MacConnell, a Kraft spokeswoman. \u201cWe all try to protect the value of our brands. But this one just kind of got away from us. I don\u2019t think there was any way to fight it.\u201d MacConnell added that Kool-Aid remains a popular drink and that the Jonestown tragedy has not overshadowed the brand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"06-01b-KoolAid\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And Finally\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

An iconic photo of Jim Jones from the final day appears on a \u201cHappy Birthday<\/a>\u201d greeting card, with an invitation to \u201cHave Some Koolaid\u201d as the message inside. The card \u2013 which sells for $5 \u2013 includes a packet of KoolAid as an enclosure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Editor\u2019s note: the jonestown report made note every year in its 13 editions between 2007 and 2019 of the numerous articles, op-ed pieces, and commentaries that specifically mention the use of the phrase “Drinking the Kool-Aid,” even if it isn\u2019t the focus of the entire piece. Even though the report suspended the annual listing beginning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":34356,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-34292","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34292","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=34292"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134113,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34292\/revisions\/134113"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}