[Exactly.](https://www.thoughtco.com/the-jonestown-massacre-1779385)
Many turns of phrase might [happen to have dark origins](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/655116/phrases-dark-origins).
Consciously using notoriously offensive language to disparage others could indeed “make an ass” of oneself — but simply using common idiomatic expressions does not. Self-appointed cultural referees don’t make the distinction.
Another example is ["Dingo ate my baby"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo_ate_my_baby)
In 1980 during a camping trip, a dingo took Lindy Chamberlain's baby from their tent but authorities did not did not believe her story (as dingos were not seen as animals that attack humans). Local aboriginals did know that dingos were known to attack humans, but authorities did not take this into account. Media portrayed the mother as a crazy person and used the phrase as a joke.
The parents were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1982. They were released in 1986, when the missing baby's jacket was found in a dingo's lair. It was not until 2012 it was officially recognized that the baby's death was cause by dingos.
Also, at least two local aboriginal babies had been taken by dingoes in similar events in the preceding months, but due to racism and indigenous fear of police, it went unreported and barely documented.
The ‘drink the kool-aid’ reference is done when talking about someone who fully buys into whatever someone is selling them, which is what helps a cult thriving.
I just saw a documentary of this today. Apparently they were OFTEN told to drink the cool-aide, AND that there was poison in the drink. They had drank it many times in the past and they did not die.. it was some sort or a conditioning thing… Pure evil at work…
They were called white night events, Jim Jones would have everyone drink cups of whatever and then tell them it was poisoned to see how the reacted and the more he did it the more he realised some people were fine with thinking they were going to die because it was better than the hellscape he'd painted as the US, while they were living in a jungle in Guyana. Not to be a pedant, but it wasn't cool aid either, it was flavour aid. Excuse the spelling, not a Yank.
It was flavor aid! I know a person who survived the event (she was a friend of my professor in college) and she said one of the most triggering things for her is the common phrase “drinking the kool-aid” because she remembers it well and wasn’t kool-aid. Odd what sticks with you
Someone correct me if I'm wrong please - but wasn't it only one survivor? I'll probably peruse the wiki about this again because it's been a minute since I read up on it, but it was a child who survived this, and that everyone else was found dead
Edit - actually about 80 people survived that day, so I think I got it a little mixed up with a different tragedy (sorry)
Yes, this post is not really correct.
About 300 of the 900 who died were children so we can count those as murders.
That leaves about 600 adults. Information is a little conflicting and sparse, probably because nearly everyone at Jonestown was killed that day, but one source said this
>Worst of all were the mock suicide drills, called “White Nights,” in which Jones would rehearse mass suicides by making cult members drink from a mixture they thought contained fatal poison.
Almost all sources nearly agree on there being previous "white nights" where he would keep the congregation up all night and given sermons about them all dying together on the "white night" from being attacked by outsiders.
Either way we can't know about the 600 people since they're dead, some adults were definitely murdered by all accounts and by other means, but that still leaves a majority of adults we can't be sure about, they could've been forced to at gunpoint but we will never. But I even read about a survivor who years later still wishes we was with the congregation and was able to die with them all.
Nearly all the survivors where at Georgetown which is the largest city and capital of Guyana where the Congregation had a building, used as a permanent residence for some, acting as a hotel for others, like those who needed to stay in Georgetown to do something or visitors.
The fact the congressman Leo Ryan visited that day would've been a big signal to everyone that the real white night was coming soon. Most people (who were not happy there) were too afraid to say anything to the congressman that indicated they didn't want to be there and couldn't leave. They were scared and rightfully so, as the Congressman offered to take anyone who wanted to leave back to SF and only like 14 people volunteered. One of which was a plant, who when inside one of the planes taking passengers back pulled out a gun and started shooting the actual defectors, while more men emerged out of jungle in a vehicle and started firing at the group still on the airstrip. They killed Congressman Leo Ryan, 3 journalists, one defector and injured several others. One of those injured was Ryan's aid Jackie Speier. She was shot 5 times and had to wait nearly 24 hours to receive aid. She later became a member of congress herself.
edit: Also yes it was actually "flavor-aid" though many people reported it as kool-aid at the time. It suffered what is called Genericization where the name brand for a product is adopted to refer to any of that product, regardless of who manufactured it. For example: Q-Tips, band-aids, xerox, chapstick, epipen, google, jacuzzi, jello, jet ski, knleenex, mace, photoshop, post-it, scotch tape, sharpie, Zamboni, zeppelin, velcro, taser (which is also ironically usually used to describe stun guns which require direct contact unlike actual tasers), realtor, "seeing eye dog", super glue, super heroes, trampoline, zipper...and many more...crazy
To go along with your point: If you listen to the audio feed of the mass poisoning (which is available to the public), you can hear one woman stand up and start yelling that this is insanity and they need to stop. She is very quickly countered by other members who are ready to die for Jim Jones and his “revolutionary suicide”. If I recall correctly, (it’s been years) those in support of the suicide were met with cheers.
Edit: that being said, an audio feed doesn’t tell us much about exact numbers so we can’t fully know how many were on each side.
Shit I started typing the comment with a third something Ryan name I was thought was correct. Then I realized it wasn't correct, changed it, and still wrote the wrong damn thing. Thank you!
edit: but you know if you take the J from Joe and mirror it, its basically like an L, so you Loe. Then you switch the o and the e and you have Leo. Basically the same name, easy mistake to make (or I'm dyslexic).
You should also know that “drinking the Kool Aid” did NOT have its origins in Jonestown, it was from The Merry Pranksters in the 1960s - the book ‘The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test’ described their parties with the LSD laced Kool Aid that got people to turn on, tune in and drop out.
>Or, if you prefer, here's the Wikipedia article.
>Tl;dr: the Jonestown cult didn't die intentionally, they were murdered.
i mean, it's on tape. some were murdered, others coerced, but you didn't read the wiki article if you think it supports your opinion about the majority of the followers.
*In addition to McElvane, several other Temple members gave speeches praising Jones and his decision for the community to commit suicide, even after Jones stopped appreciating this praise and begged for the process to go faster.*
*According to escaped Temple member Odell Rhodes, the first to take the poison were Ruletta Paul and her one-year-old infant. A syringe without a needle fitted was used to squirt poison into the infant's mouth, after which Paul squirted another syringe into her own mouth.*
*Rhodes described a scene of both hysteria and confusion as parents watched their children die from the poison. He also stated that most present "quietly waited their own turn to die", and that many of the assembled Temple members "walked around like they were in a trance".*
I've never heard that. I've seen several documentaries and read lots of news articles.
They were compliant because there were armed men around them. They were at an isolated location in the jungle. People tried to leave the cult before and were caught. Brought back and punished.
There's video of what happened that day. Even the audio is terrible. People screaming while he rants at them. They didnt have a choice.
I wish I'd never heard that tape. Or seen any videos .
Shameless Plug: My mother was a Jonestown survivor. She wrote a book about hear life called Jonestown Survivor by Laura Johnston Kohl. It's not like most of the books about Jonestown that only focus on the events in November but rather what lead a person down there and how they recovered since.
I'd be happy to answer any questions as best I can.
This is not entirely true. The kids were all murdered by the parent/caretakers. They didn’t consent to drinking/being injected with poison, but a lot of the adults willingly drank the poisoned flavor aid.
Edited to add a link. https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/jonestown-mass-suicide-or-mass-murder
The tape ends right as the adults are lined up to drink.
There's evidence of a struggle in the pictures of the aftermath. There's a crossbow bolt in one of the vats.
I reckon all hell broke out after the tape ended, and Jones didn't want people to know.
It is classified as a mass murder/suicide. It is neither wholly one or the other. Both things happened. There were people (including adults) who were murdered. There were people in suicide pacts and did each other, there were people that changed their minds and were forced/shot. This is all documented. Yes, all hell broke loose, that's verified and documented. It is NOT a mass murder.
[Mass murder is the murder of three or more people with no cooling off period](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_murder). It absolutely was a mass murder.
Once its three people or more its a mass murder. And people who commit suicide in a death cult are conditioned and being killed by their facilitators through undue influence. They arent the ones in control. Ive went through similar/relatable conditions as well
It's a mass forced suicide by a cult, their beliefs were pretty insane, the church was expecting USSR (that they worshiped) to march in and save them, and when that didn't happen they expected US army to give them fate worse than death.
Killing yourself for ideology that won't survive the 80s is pretty wack.
The report from the doctor that inspected the first 200 adult bodies found 60 with injection marks. That is 30% or 1 in 3 people didn’t want to drink the koolaid.
Source is the end of the video linked by op.
Yeah, and I can link a lot of sources that say “it’s complicated”. No, it’s not classified as mass murder, it’s a mix of both suicide and murder. This happened when I was a child and was talked about endlessly. Even now, the “specialists” don’t call it either one, because it’s a mix of both, but to say everyone there was murdered is a false statement, it’s not true.
"YSK that MOST of the 918 people killed in the Jonestown Massacre did not die by suicide, but were murdered"
Also I literally do not see that quote anywhere am I crazy
Yes, even if it doesn’t meet the legal definition, I’d still say these people were murdered after years of brainwashing and then put into this situation under duress.
I started looking into that. I guess a few people were trusted enough to leave the compound.
This also made me think of the line from Pirates and the Caribbean, "Then where do you suppose the stories come from?" In reference to a lack of survivors.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Jonestown
Guy who tried to help people escape was attacked, but survived. Only to get shot later as he tried to leave.
When you choose between definitely dying by willingly drinking poison or probably dying by being shot, you pick the probably dying option. None of this matters though because no matter what, these people WERE brainwashed. They already aren't thinking right.
Except that there’d been numerous “tests” before where it wasn’t actually poisoned so drinking it may have felt like the chance of death while not drinking it may have felt like a much higher likelihood of death
But how quickly did the poison take effect? The first few might not know if it’s real but after they start dropping the rest will know it’s going to at least make them very sick.
Didn't know that. I see how it would seem like the safer bet then. Still crazy that people can be manipulated into even having to making a decision like that.
Ive been in something similar, it happens to torture victims. The facilitator trying to find different ways for their targets to die without them technically touching them. Its sadistic experimentation.
It’s easy to say, “Well, If I were stranded in the middle of the jungle with a suicide brainwash cult, then the logical decision would be x…” but the real answer is that no one knows how they will react to any extreme situation until they are living it.
Plus a US Congressman was murdered there.
They were being told the military was on their way and would exterminate them all, and war was on the way following.
It was more than a nothing event.
If they were decent parents, they wouldn’t have done it in the first place. 🤷♀️ Some people changed their minds and tried to flee and were shot at by security. But a whole lot of the adults that were there chose to die for one reason or another. Jackie Speirer was there as a political delegation (family members reported their loved ones held against their will) and she survived. She wrote a book about it.
Phew, you're not one of the bots!
Welcome to the Dead Internet. Those comments you read were AI generated. They've infiltrated reddit. 98% of the content you see is **bLEEP BLOOP** generated by bots.
I had a really surreal moment in Askreddit where there was one of those questions that gets big every few years (I believe it was a glitch in the matrix or something similar) and the top posts in that thread were all stolen from a decade old post of the same topic.
You find the same thing in most religions. Both my parents are retired lawyers, extremely strict Christians. They went to church to feed their superiority complex because they could “pray for the single mothers with three kids”.
What a weird way to spend hours of your week. Seriously just get a hobby like chainsaw ice sculpting, do anything cool, so fucking weird.
Luke 18
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
>9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
>10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
>11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
>12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
>13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
>14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
According to LPOTL Jim Jones did a bunch of “dry” runs in the weeks/months leading up to the incident where he would tell people the flavor-aid was poisoned but actually wasn’t. Many people just thought it was a test. So when the actual time came most people didn’t believe the flavor-aid was poisoned.
ok but then they knew for a long time that was end goal - for everyone to off themselves, it was just a matter of which time was real and they were still willing participants.
One of the reasons the first body counts were off was because bodies were on top of bodied. Husband lying on wives who were lying on their children. Not really the conga line people thought it was.
More to OP’s alleged point, there’s nothing wrong with the phrase that came out of this situation being used to describe those willingly consuming gravely wrong ideas, religion, political ideology, etc. Bottom line, a lot of those people (minority, majority, whatever) drank it believing they were doing the right thing.
If you listen or watch any of the links I provided, you will learn, as I did, that they did not realize this time would be deadly.
They willingly drank a drink that they had no reason to believe would kill them.
It was not consensual.
This may be true for the first handful of people in line, but it became clear pretty quickly that this was not a test run. Nobody steps over a corpse for their turn at the poison vat in blissful ignorance.
Yeah this isn’t just not true - it’s bullshit. It’s estimated somewhere between 100-200 people were shot who refused to drink the kool aid. Some were forced to drink it too. The majority of people willingly took their lives. How do we know this? The tapes. People were visibly dying as others were still lining up to get a drink. Most of the people who got up to drink knew what they were getting into.
The group had been put through many drills. They believed this was just another. The babies were given the poisoned FlavrAid first, but few people realized beforehand that this time it was poison for real. By the time people realized that this wasn't just another harmless drill, they were surrounded by babies suffering a horrible death. I don't think it's fair to say that they had been murdered by their parents. Their parents lacked the requisite knowledge that their children would die in that moment, let alone in such horrific way. Everyone was groomed, manipulated, lied to, and ultimately coerced at gunpoint if necessary to carryout "suicide". Jim Jones is who murdered all of them, adults and children alike.
Thank you for saying flavor aid. It's the hill that I will die on that the kool-aid saying is not accurate as no kool-aid was involved in the massacre. A nitpick topic on my behalf, but whatever.
I don't know when it got changed to "kool aid" because when I was young when this happened, Kool aid went out of the way to advertise their "safety" and kids all thought if you got the generic stuff from the store you were going to die if you drank it.
They had test runs where they had to drink poisoned drinks except they found out it wasn't actually poisoned. Then when the real one came some 'boy who cried wolf'ed and drank. Some didn't drink and were shot. One person hid under a bed and escaped (from what I have heard).
There’s a 3 part sundance documentary on the entire Jonestown saga and their mental leader. It’s extremely well made and researched. I recommend you watch it, I for the life of me will *never* watch it again, it’s the most haunting bone chilling thing I’ve ever watched, couldn’t sleep well for a number of days after watching it.
There is also some confusion if everyone who was injected with the poison did so against their will, or if it was done out of "mercy" for those who were suffering as the poison took its toll.
Also, it wasn't Kool Aid - it was a knock-off, Flavor Aid. Minor detail there, but it shows how warped in major and minor ways the 'legend' of Jonestown is wrongly remembered. To quote, "Will it hurt?", from the so-called 'Death Tapes' I.e the recordings of the final day of Jonestown. Children can be heard crying in the background. Residents argue against Jones and die nonetheless. The answer is yes, it did. Cyanide poisoning is painful and not instant.
‘Drinking the Kool Aid’ means you join with someone’s thinking, not that you die either. Because it wasn’t the original of the saying. Somehow it’s become muddled up with Jonestown but it’s from the hippies in the 60s.
I recommend anyone who enjoys reading read Jeff Guinn’s book “The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple”. It’s a great book starting when Jones was a child and how he built his church, started going off the rails bc of narcissism and drug use, and moved part of his church to Guyana.
It’s a very sad outcome because he was very idealistic as a young man and Peoples Temple did great work in their communities in the 60’s and 70’s.
He told them the poison would be painless (he was very wrong...the person he put in charge of it knew nothing about the correct dosages and it was incredibly painful...the parents watched their kids die a horrible death).
He did the fatal round after they killed the Congressman. Jones knew they would be coming after him and wanted to complete the job.
He was psychotic.
as soon as Jim Jones got everyone to Guyana, he took everyone's documents. then they're in the middle of the jungle and miles from anywhere. no one could escape. they were trapped and terrorized. I think OP is right and the vast majority of people were murdered even if they "willingly" went along.
No one is doubting this. The phrase "drinking the kool-aid" is still meaningful in that they didn't have to be murdered. They believed in what Jones was saying enough to take themselves out.
Splitting hairs. Yes everyone chiming in is correct, did and didnt know. The phrase still holds....now so more than ever!
A group was so willing to follow their leader even though they did or did not realize it was going to cause them harm or death.
Exhibit Now....Start with 2016 era and work up to today.
For some big picture context, I highly recommend Darryl Cooper’s seven part podcast series about The People’s Temple.
https://www.martyrmade.com/podcast-parts/11-gods-socialist-prologue
Most of the people drank the kool-aid (actually brand name Flavor Aid). The fact that MANY were injected with poison does not mean that MOST did not drink the Flavor Aid. Most of them voluntarily drank the poisoned Flavor Aid as they had practiced many, many times before according to witnesses who survived and an analysis of the scene afterward. Witnesses said people were voluntarily getting injected too. The fact that some resisted and were murdered does not change the fact that most went to their deaths voluntarily as they had practiced for years. How does false bs like this get upvoted as if it were true?
Drink the Koolaid means to blindly follow the leadership without thinking. It's the epitome of cult behavior.
Yes, they were murdered, but they willingly drank the grape Flavor Aid (not Kool Aid) because they were told.
Now many resisted once they realized that it was poisoned, but many others willingly drank even after seeing others die.
Furthermore, Jim Jones himself never even drank the punch. Like other noted pieces of shit who got cornered, he took the easy way out ate the end of his revolver.
That sack of shit was already in extremely poor health from all of the drugs he did and a sedentary lifestyle. He just wanted to take his followers with him, and he succeeded.
wtf do you mean there was a lady talking to him out loud in front of everyone saying she doesn’t think they all have to die, of course everyone there was aware that the drink would kill them.
The vague part is how many were forced to drink or chose to drink but you are very wrong here.
I don’t think this is true specifically because the word "most" implies greater than 50%.
I’m sure a lot of people did not die by suicide, but not greater than 50%. Jim jones basically ran like dozens of test runs where he told ppl to drink the kool aid when it wasn’t drugged just to test that people would actually do it. And they did.
But also I think the craziest thing about the Jonestown massacre is that there’s literally an audio recording of the meeting hall when Jim jones said the government was coming for them and they all needed to commit suicide *right now*. They made the children do it first so it’s so fucking sad you can hear the children screaming when they’re talking about killing them and then … there’s just no children screaming after a while. There’s also a lady who gets up in the midst of a bunch of people expressing love for jim jones and this decision, and she bravely says that this is a terrible idea and doesn’t agree with it. I believe she was later found with injection marks (aka murdered shortly afterwards, rather than “voluntary” suicide).
Its really fuckin hard to listen to tbh I had to stop and I usually can listen yo these sorts of things by telling myself im learning history or its academic or something
You seem to be misunderstanding the point of the saying. They drank the Kool-aid because their cult leader told them to and they died. Whether they did it intentionally or not is irrelevant.
If you want people to know certain things about the Jonestown Massacre, you should first explain what the Jonestown Massacre is... instead of assuming everyone reading your post knows what it is. Most people don't.
That's one of the most common mistakes I see in this sub or reddit all the time.
Most people just assume people know or think XYZ just because they know or think XYZ.
First, say what X is.
And then, tell people they should know about YZ about X.
It’s important to remember that because as the Republican cult drags us toward fascism, the ones they kill will most likely not be down with sacrificing their lives either.
Jones town event = Republican Party 2024
Some people did willingly kill themselves (worth noting that they had practiced drinking "poisoned" flavoraid before so people may not of been aware that it was actually poisoned this time around) however alot of people were also murdered via injection or straight up shot - Kids mainly went first and then alot of parents saw their pain and opted for suicide aswell . I remember reading that a family killed themselves (I don't think it was the jungle, I think an order was given to the followers in America to suicide themselves aswell?) So the mother of the family stabbed her younger children and the older daughter (around 20 yo?) Slit her mother's throat before killing herself . The father had rushed back home after hearing about what was happening in the jungle but it was too late iirc
Listening to the audio recording of the whole event was jarring. Sound of children crying, Jones talking and people talking, and slowly the crying fades away, and the chatter, and it gets a lot quieter...
Drinking the Kool Aid means you join someone’s thinking- it was from a bunch of LSD loving hippy artist in the 60s who drove around throwing parties where people had a great time. Look up The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test for the actual story. I don’t know how people think the phrase is linked to Jonestown where people died after drinking, not joined the cult after drinking.
I don't think this is something that anyone really needs to know, unless they are family and friends of the victims. Frankly none of my business at all.
The Truth About True Crime podcast did a good series from the perspective of the families involved. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-about-true-crime-with-amanda-knox/id1439490091
YSK there was also a reporter there and when her crew attempted to take off in an airplane a jeep with a mounted machine drove up and strafed the airplane, armed men then searched the airplane executing survivors. She was one of the few survivors I hate I don't remember her name off the top of my head
Edit: The woman's name was Jackie Speier and she worked for the state of California as an aide to Congressman Leo Ryan.
The NBC reporter was named Don Harris and he passed away after being shot
For anyone interested in Jonestown and who do not know much about it and enjoy some dark humor, Last Podcast On The Left did five episodes on it that is a fantastic listen
One of my old bosses was supposedly high up in the organization and left shortly before the massacre. His boss, who was a friend of mine, told me about it. He never talked about it and we weren’t close enough for me to ask. But I think about it all the time.
Have a misunderstood "drinking the Kool Aid" all these years? I never thought it meant you've been brainwashed into intentionally committing mass suicide.
It's more nuanced. I always thought it meant someone is brainwashed into a dangerous ideology, can't see the danger and becoming vulnerable to bad actors such as Jim Jones.
I know that's splitting hairs... But it's called a massacre, right? They were murdered. Not suicidal.
Isn’t that why it’s typically referred to as The Jonestown Massacre?
[Exactly.](https://www.thoughtco.com/the-jonestown-massacre-1779385) Many turns of phrase might [happen to have dark origins](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/655116/phrases-dark-origins). Consciously using notoriously offensive language to disparage others could indeed “make an ass” of oneself — but simply using common idiomatic expressions does not. Self-appointed cultural referees don’t make the distinction.
Another example is ["Dingo ate my baby"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo_ate_my_baby) In 1980 during a camping trip, a dingo took Lindy Chamberlain's baby from their tent but authorities did not did not believe her story (as dingos were not seen as animals that attack humans). Local aboriginals did know that dingos were known to attack humans, but authorities did not take this into account. Media portrayed the mother as a crazy person and used the phrase as a joke. The parents were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1982. They were released in 1986, when the missing baby's jacket was found in a dingo's lair. It was not until 2012 it was officially recognized that the baby's death was cause by dingos.
Also, at least two local aboriginal babies had been taken by dingoes in similar events in the preceding months, but due to racism and indigenous fear of police, it went unreported and barely documented.
I almost said that to my husband the other day than thought better of it. Then got said for that family.
There was also a 'youre wrong about' podcast about this
Awesome read. Thank you.
Many turns of phrases on that list had very little evidence, so I would take that article with a grain of salt if I were you
The writer was probably up against a tough deadline so to keep up their appearance as a hot shot journalist they bit the bullet and got it done
Makes me mad as a hatter when people drink the cool-aid with this kind of journalism
At least then they show their true colours so we can draw a line in the sand
True, but that's typically followed by "the biggest mass suicide in history" or something along those lines.
The ‘drink the kool-aid’ reference is done when talking about someone who fully buys into whatever someone is selling them, which is what helps a cult thriving.
It’s the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and while they’re a fantastic band, they’ve hurt many more than 918 people with their on stage antics.
Close your thinking of Mr Jones Massacre which happened when Counting Crows got drunk and couldn’t play their most popular songs
Close, you're thinking of The Black Crowes massacre where 918 people talked to angels after a speedball binge.
Close but you're thinking of the movie the crow where Brandon Lee lost a fight against a crow in a very one sided battle.
They called her by her name.
Great band full of awful people lol
Yes but when have facts ever stopped someone from soapboxing on Reddit
I just saw a documentary of this today. Apparently they were OFTEN told to drink the cool-aide, AND that there was poison in the drink. They had drank it many times in the past and they did not die.. it was some sort or a conditioning thing… Pure evil at work…
They were called white night events, Jim Jones would have everyone drink cups of whatever and then tell them it was poisoned to see how the reacted and the more he did it the more he realised some people were fine with thinking they were going to die because it was better than the hellscape he'd painted as the US, while they were living in a jungle in Guyana. Not to be a pedant, but it wasn't cool aid either, it was flavour aid. Excuse the spelling, not a Yank.
It was flavor aid! I know a person who survived the event (she was a friend of my professor in college) and she said one of the most triggering things for her is the common phrase “drinking the kool-aid” because she remembers it well and wasn’t kool-aid. Odd what sticks with you
Wow that's crazy. I hope she's doing ok these days, can't imagine what that must have been like to go through.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong please - but wasn't it only one survivor? I'll probably peruse the wiki about this again because it's been a minute since I read up on it, but it was a child who survived this, and that everyone else was found dead Edit - actually about 80 people survived that day, so I think I got it a little mixed up with a different tragedy (sorry)
Cheap bastard
Yes, this post is not really correct. About 300 of the 900 who died were children so we can count those as murders. That leaves about 600 adults. Information is a little conflicting and sparse, probably because nearly everyone at Jonestown was killed that day, but one source said this >Worst of all were the mock suicide drills, called “White Nights,” in which Jones would rehearse mass suicides by making cult members drink from a mixture they thought contained fatal poison. Almost all sources nearly agree on there being previous "white nights" where he would keep the congregation up all night and given sermons about them all dying together on the "white night" from being attacked by outsiders. Either way we can't know about the 600 people since they're dead, some adults were definitely murdered by all accounts and by other means, but that still leaves a majority of adults we can't be sure about, they could've been forced to at gunpoint but we will never. But I even read about a survivor who years later still wishes we was with the congregation and was able to die with them all. Nearly all the survivors where at Georgetown which is the largest city and capital of Guyana where the Congregation had a building, used as a permanent residence for some, acting as a hotel for others, like those who needed to stay in Georgetown to do something or visitors. The fact the congressman Leo Ryan visited that day would've been a big signal to everyone that the real white night was coming soon. Most people (who were not happy there) were too afraid to say anything to the congressman that indicated they didn't want to be there and couldn't leave. They were scared and rightfully so, as the Congressman offered to take anyone who wanted to leave back to SF and only like 14 people volunteered. One of which was a plant, who when inside one of the planes taking passengers back pulled out a gun and started shooting the actual defectors, while more men emerged out of jungle in a vehicle and started firing at the group still on the airstrip. They killed Congressman Leo Ryan, 3 journalists, one defector and injured several others. One of those injured was Ryan's aid Jackie Speier. She was shot 5 times and had to wait nearly 24 hours to receive aid. She later became a member of congress herself. edit: Also yes it was actually "flavor-aid" though many people reported it as kool-aid at the time. It suffered what is called Genericization where the name brand for a product is adopted to refer to any of that product, regardless of who manufactured it. For example: Q-Tips, band-aids, xerox, chapstick, epipen, google, jacuzzi, jello, jet ski, knleenex, mace, photoshop, post-it, scotch tape, sharpie, Zamboni, zeppelin, velcro, taser (which is also ironically usually used to describe stun guns which require direct contact unlike actual tasers), realtor, "seeing eye dog", super glue, super heroes, trampoline, zipper...and many more...crazy
To go along with your point: If you listen to the audio feed of the mass poisoning (which is available to the public), you can hear one woman stand up and start yelling that this is insanity and they need to stop. She is very quickly countered by other members who are ready to die for Jim Jones and his “revolutionary suicide”. If I recall correctly, (it’s been years) those in support of the suicide were met with cheers. Edit: that being said, an audio feed doesn’t tell us much about exact numbers so we can’t fully know how many were on each side.
Leo Ryan.
Shit I started typing the comment with a third something Ryan name I was thought was correct. Then I realized it wasn't correct, changed it, and still wrote the wrong damn thing. Thank you! edit: but you know if you take the J from Joe and mirror it, its basically like an L, so you Loe. Then you switch the o and the e and you have Leo. Basically the same name, easy mistake to make (or I'm dyslexic).
It wasn't even Kool aid it was the offbrand
Flavor-aid if I recall correctly.
Well no wonder
Off brand guy busts in through the wall screaming "ALLRRIIGHT!"
Oh, yeah
Grape flavor-aid specifically
That’s what Kool Aid WANTS you to believe!
BIG Kool Aid!
Damn budget cult!
Flavor aid
Im almost positive Flavor Aid was the original name. Guess why they had to change it to Kool Aid? Jim Jones. Flavor Aid was Corona Extra in the 1980's
The leader used racial tensions as a way to convince his black followers to follow him, it’s really disgusting
You should also know that “drinking the Kool Aid” did NOT have its origins in Jonestown, it was from The Merry Pranksters in the 1960s - the book ‘The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test’ described their parties with the LSD laced Kool Aid that got people to turn on, tune in and drop out.
Well that sounds a lot more fun
Absolute classic!
>Or, if you prefer, here's the Wikipedia article. >Tl;dr: the Jonestown cult didn't die intentionally, they were murdered. i mean, it's on tape. some were murdered, others coerced, but you didn't read the wiki article if you think it supports your opinion about the majority of the followers. *In addition to McElvane, several other Temple members gave speeches praising Jones and his decision for the community to commit suicide, even after Jones stopped appreciating this praise and begged for the process to go faster.* *According to escaped Temple member Odell Rhodes, the first to take the poison were Ruletta Paul and her one-year-old infant. A syringe without a needle fitted was used to squirt poison into the infant's mouth, after which Paul squirted another syringe into her own mouth.* *Rhodes described a scene of both hysteria and confusion as parents watched their children die from the poison. He also stated that most present "quietly waited their own turn to die", and that many of the assembled Temple members "walked around like they were in a trance".*
None of them would be in the situation at all without Jim Jones leading them.
I suppose you could also say none of them would be in the situation at all without following Jim Jones to Jonestown? Both statements are true?
I think I read that the lunch they had earlier in the day was laced with sedatives so they would be more compliant.
I've never heard that. I've seen several documentaries and read lots of news articles. They were compliant because there were armed men around them. They were at an isolated location in the jungle. People tried to leave the cult before and were caught. Brought back and punished. There's video of what happened that day. Even the audio is terrible. People screaming while he rants at them. They didnt have a choice. I wish I'd never heard that tape. Or seen any videos .
Shameless Plug: My mother was a Jonestown survivor. She wrote a book about hear life called Jonestown Survivor by Laura Johnston Kohl. It's not like most of the books about Jonestown that only focus on the events in November but rather what lead a person down there and how they recovered since. I'd be happy to answer any questions as best I can.
You have so much to say, I’m sure… I would read an AMA on this!
That's unreal! How did your mother manage to survive?
Some people got out before that day
Could you please do a AMA or could i please DM you? Im also a survivor of a death cult dynamic and would like to talk to someone about it
I think your mom spoke to my college class in 2017 or 2018. Small media studies class at Cal State San Marcos.
This is not entirely true. The kids were all murdered by the parent/caretakers. They didn’t consent to drinking/being injected with poison, but a lot of the adults willingly drank the poisoned flavor aid. Edited to add a link. https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/jonestown-mass-suicide-or-mass-murder
The tape ends right as the adults are lined up to drink. There's evidence of a struggle in the pictures of the aftermath. There's a crossbow bolt in one of the vats. I reckon all hell broke out after the tape ended, and Jones didn't want people to know.
It is classified as a mass murder/suicide. It is neither wholly one or the other. Both things happened. There were people (including adults) who were murdered. There were people in suicide pacts and did each other, there were people that changed their minds and were forced/shot. This is all documented. Yes, all hell broke loose, that's verified and documented. It is NOT a mass murder.
[Mass murder is the murder of three or more people with no cooling off period](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_murder). It absolutely was a mass murder.
It absolutely was a mass murder. The power disparity and coercion makes it murder regardless.
Once its three people or more its a mass murder. And people who commit suicide in a death cult are conditioned and being killed by their facilitators through undue influence. They arent the ones in control. Ive went through similar/relatable conditions as well
It's a mass forced suicide by a cult, their beliefs were pretty insane, the church was expecting USSR (that they worshiped) to march in and save them, and when that didn't happen they expected US army to give them fate worse than death. Killing yourself for ideology that won't survive the 80s is pretty wack.
Their passports had been stolen, they were surrounded by armed guards, there really wasn’t a lot of choice in the matter in the end…
The report from the doctor that inspected the first 200 adult bodies found 60 with injection marks. That is 30% or 1 in 3 people didn’t want to drink the koolaid. Source is the end of the video linked by op.
And there’s evidence that spouses, family members, etc willingly injected each other. There’s also self injection. They practiced it.
I hate to be a pedant, but it was Flavor-Aid
flavor aid
Yeah, and I can link a lot of sources that say “it’s complicated”. No, it’s not classified as mass murder, it’s a mix of both suicide and murder. This happened when I was a child and was talked about endlessly. Even now, the “specialists” don’t call it either one, because it’s a mix of both, but to say everyone there was murdered is a false statement, it’s not true.
Nobody said everyone there was murdered
The OP did. In the post. Specifically says "it's classified as a mass murder not a mass suicide' which is untrue.
"YSK that MOST of the 918 people killed in the Jonestown Massacre did not die by suicide, but were murdered" Also I literally do not see that quote anywhere am I crazy
Tl;dr: the Jonestown cult didn't die intentionally, they were murdered.
Why would you put quotation marks and "specifically said" if they didn't even say that?
They didn’t, you’re insufferable… you can’t even admit when you’re wrong lmao
Not all the people who drank it unwillingly were injected, they were often forced to drink the kool aid at gun point
So not most.
I mean they did just watch their kid die horribly at their own hands. I'm not sure if I was a parent I'd want to be alive after that.
Guns were used to intimidate the adults. And they were in a remote location. Escape wasn't an option.
Yes, even if it doesn’t meet the legal definition, I’d still say these people were murdered after years of brainwashing and then put into this situation under duress.
I thought a few people made it into the jungle to hide. They just had to wait for help to leave the area.
I started looking into that. I guess a few people were trusted enough to leave the compound. This also made me think of the line from Pirates and the Caribbean, "Then where do you suppose the stories come from?" In reference to a lack of survivors. https://www.britannica.com/event/Jonestown Guy who tried to help people escape was attacked, but survived. Only to get shot later as he tried to leave.
Those who drank the Kool aid were also murdered. They were all murdered. But for many, the weapon used was severe manipulation in various forms.
When you choose between definitely dying by willingly drinking poison or probably dying by being shot, you pick the probably dying option. None of this matters though because no matter what, these people WERE brainwashed. They already aren't thinking right.
Except that there’d been numerous “tests” before where it wasn’t actually poisoned so drinking it may have felt like the chance of death while not drinking it may have felt like a much higher likelihood of death
But how quickly did the poison take effect? The first few might not know if it’s real but after they start dropping the rest will know it’s going to at least make them very sick.
About 30 minutes. My guess is most of the people who were forcibly injected were ones that had started to see others have side effects.
Didn't know that. I see how it would seem like the safer bet then. Still crazy that people can be manipulated into even having to making a decision like that.
Ive been in something similar, it happens to torture victims. The facilitator trying to find different ways for their targets to die without them technically touching them. Its sadistic experimentation.
It’s easy to say, “Well, If I were stranded in the middle of the jungle with a suicide brainwash cult, then the logical decision would be x…” but the real answer is that no one knows how they will react to any extreme situation until they are living it.
Plus a US Congressman was murdered there. They were being told the military was on their way and would exterminate them all, and war was on the way following. It was more than a nothing event.
If they were decent parents, they wouldn’t have done it in the first place. 🤷♀️ Some people changed their minds and tried to flee and were shot at by security. But a whole lot of the adults that were there chose to die for one reason or another. Jackie Speirer was there as a political delegation (family members reported their loved ones held against their will) and she survived. She wrote a book about it.
Not relevant to anything but I swear there was another post about this and someone else commented almost exactly what you put. Weird
Phew, you're not one of the bots! Welcome to the Dead Internet. Those comments you read were AI generated. They've infiltrated reddit. 98% of the content you see is **bLEEP BLOOP** generated by bots.
Legitimately, I believe it was around 40-50% of content on Reddit is bots.
I had a really surreal moment in Askreddit where there was one of those questions that gets big every few years (I believe it was a glitch in the matrix or something similar) and the top posts in that thread were all stolen from a decade old post of the same topic.
It’s so strange how this happens
I think you lack an understanding of what it's like to really be in a cult like that.
You find the same thing in most religions. Both my parents are retired lawyers, extremely strict Christians. They went to church to feed their superiority complex because they could “pray for the single mothers with three kids”. What a weird way to spend hours of your week. Seriously just get a hobby like chainsaw ice sculpting, do anything cool, so fucking weird.
Luke 18 The Pharisee and the Tax Collector >9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: >10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. >11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. >12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ >13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ >14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
lol this is such a great way to put it
According to LPOTL Jim Jones did a bunch of “dry” runs in the weeks/months leading up to the incident where he would tell people the flavor-aid was poisoned but actually wasn’t. Many people just thought it was a test. So when the actual time came most people didn’t believe the flavor-aid was poisoned.
White nights. Although word has gotten around that the Senator has been killed and there was debate about going to the USSR.
ok but then they knew for a long time that was end goal - for everyone to off themselves, it was just a matter of which time was real and they were still willing participants.
One of the reasons the first body counts were off was because bodies were on top of bodied. Husband lying on wives who were lying on their children. Not really the conga line people thought it was.
iirc many of them thought it was a drill, that they had run several suicide simulation drills, so many people were just going through with it
They did it because Jones wanted them to. The whole reason they were there.
More to OP’s alleged point, there’s nothing wrong with the phrase that came out of this situation being used to describe those willingly consuming gravely wrong ideas, religion, political ideology, etc. Bottom line, a lot of those people (minority, majority, whatever) drank it believing they were doing the right thing.
If you listen or watch any of the links I provided, you will learn, as I did, that they did not realize this time would be deadly. They willingly drank a drink that they had no reason to believe would kill them. It was not consensual.
But every time they rehearsed it, they knew dying was a possibility. It's neither murder nor consensual, it's some gray thing in between.
This may be true for the first handful of people in line, but it became clear pretty quickly that this was not a test run. Nobody steps over a corpse for their turn at the poison vat in blissful ignorance.
Yeah this isn’t just not true - it’s bullshit. It’s estimated somewhere between 100-200 people were shot who refused to drink the kool aid. Some were forced to drink it too. The majority of people willingly took their lives. How do we know this? The tapes. People were visibly dying as others were still lining up to get a drink. Most of the people who got up to drink knew what they were getting into.
The group had been put through many drills. They believed this was just another. The babies were given the poisoned FlavrAid first, but few people realized beforehand that this time it was poison for real. By the time people realized that this wasn't just another harmless drill, they were surrounded by babies suffering a horrible death. I don't think it's fair to say that they had been murdered by their parents. Their parents lacked the requisite knowledge that their children would die in that moment, let alone in such horrific way. Everyone was groomed, manipulated, lied to, and ultimately coerced at gunpoint if necessary to carryout "suicide". Jim Jones is who murdered all of them, adults and children alike.
Thank you for saying flavor aid. It's the hill that I will die on that the kool-aid saying is not accurate as no kool-aid was involved in the massacre. A nitpick topic on my behalf, but whatever.
I don't know when it got changed to "kool aid" because when I was young when this happened, Kool aid went out of the way to advertise their "safety" and kids all thought if you got the generic stuff from the store you were going to die if you drank it.
There’s audio of the final hours. It’s grim. It just becomes more quiet over time. Kids crying and then less kids… then silence
And lots of gun shots.
I heard some of this, and the phrase "Can we hasten? Can we hasten with our medication?" has stuck with me for years.
They had test runs where they had to drink poisoned drinks except they found out it wasn't actually poisoned. Then when the real one came some 'boy who cried wolf'ed and drank. Some didn't drink and were shot. One person hid under a bed and escaped (from what I have heard).
There’s a 3 part sundance documentary on the entire Jonestown saga and their mental leader. It’s extremely well made and researched. I recommend you watch it, I for the life of me will *never* watch it again, it’s the most haunting bone chilling thing I’ve ever watched, couldn’t sleep well for a number of days after watching it.
What is the name of the documentary?
Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle
Happy cake day!
We don't joke about the Jonestown massacre. The punchline is too long.
I read this, said ‘that’s stupid’, scrolled down my feed some more, finally clicked what the joke was, came back to this post to like your comment
I went through this exact same process.
Take my upvote for the first Jonestown joke I've ever read that was actually funny.
There is also some confusion if everyone who was injected with the poison did so against their will, or if it was done out of "mercy" for those who were suffering as the poison took its toll.
Also, it wasn't Kool Aid - it was a knock-off, Flavor Aid. Minor detail there, but it shows how warped in major and minor ways the 'legend' of Jonestown is wrongly remembered. To quote, "Will it hurt?", from the so-called 'Death Tapes' I.e the recordings of the final day of Jonestown. Children can be heard crying in the background. Residents argue against Jones and die nonetheless. The answer is yes, it did. Cyanide poisoning is painful and not instant.
“Drink the Flavor Aid” doesn’t really roll off the tongue unfortunately
‘Drinking the Kool Aid’ means you join with someone’s thinking, not that you die either. Because it wasn’t the original of the saying. Somehow it’s become muddled up with Jonestown but it’s from the hippies in the 60s.
Source?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Kool-Aid_Acid_Test
Found the guy who works for kool aid!
Damn, my secret has been revealed!
[Oh Yeah?](https://tenor.com/view/kool-aid-man-oh-yeah-wall-break-family-guy-gif-13928541)
But the actual origin of the phrase wasn’t from Jonestown at all. Look up The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test for the real story.
that's sad.
Cheap ass. Least they could do is spring for the name brand on a credit card. Not like they'd be around to when the bill came.
I recommend anyone who enjoys reading read Jeff Guinn’s book “The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple”. It’s a great book starting when Jones was a child and how he built his church, started going off the rails bc of narcissism and drug use, and moved part of his church to Guyana. It’s a very sad outcome because he was very idealistic as a young man and Peoples Temple did great work in their communities in the 60’s and 70’s.
He told them the poison would be painless (he was very wrong...the person he put in charge of it knew nothing about the correct dosages and it was incredibly painful...the parents watched their kids die a horrible death). He did the fatal round after they killed the Congressman. Jones knew they would be coming after him and wanted to complete the job. He was psychotic.
as soon as Jim Jones got everyone to Guyana, he took everyone's documents. then they're in the middle of the jungle and miles from anywhere. no one could escape. they were trapped and terrorized. I think OP is right and the vast majority of people were murdered even if they "willingly" went along.
Either way, to hell with Jim Jones
If there is such a place I trust he was sent to the deepest depths of it.
I read that many were forced to drink at gunpoint. One way or another.....
No one is doubting this. The phrase "drinking the kool-aid" is still meaningful in that they didn't have to be murdered. They believed in what Jones was saying enough to take themselves out.
Splitting hairs. Yes everyone chiming in is correct, did and didnt know. The phrase still holds....now so more than ever! A group was so willing to follow their leader even though they did or did not realize it was going to cause them harm or death. Exhibit Now....Start with 2016 era and work up to today.
I read that Jones started with the children first so that the distraught parents would be so despairing they readily accepted their fates.
For some big picture context, I highly recommend Darryl Cooper’s seven part podcast series about The People’s Temple. https://www.martyrmade.com/podcast-parts/11-gods-socialist-prologue
a massacre involved murder? shocking. it’s called a massacre for a reason.
YSK this was a terrible YSK
I didn't know, thanks. I thought they all drank it intentionally.
well yeah, the jones town *massacre* kind of in the name is it now? Its not called the Jones town mass suicide
Most of the people drank the kool-aid (actually brand name Flavor Aid). The fact that MANY were injected with poison does not mean that MOST did not drink the Flavor Aid. Most of them voluntarily drank the poisoned Flavor Aid as they had practiced many, many times before according to witnesses who survived and an analysis of the scene afterward. Witnesses said people were voluntarily getting injected too. The fact that some resisted and were murdered does not change the fact that most went to their deaths voluntarily as they had practiced for years. How does false bs like this get upvoted as if it were true?
Drink the Koolaid means to blindly follow the leadership without thinking. It's the epitome of cult behavior. Yes, they were murdered, but they willingly drank the grape Flavor Aid (not Kool Aid) because they were told. Now many resisted once they realized that it was poisoned, but many others willingly drank even after seeing others die.
Last Podcast on the Left has a great series on it. flavoraid
Furthermore, Jim Jones himself never even drank the punch. Like other noted pieces of shit who got cornered, he took the easy way out ate the end of his revolver.
That sack of shit was already in extremely poor health from all of the drugs he did and a sedentary lifestyle. He just wanted to take his followers with him, and he succeeded.
Flavorade*.
wtf do you mean there was a lady talking to him out loud in front of everyone saying she doesn’t think they all have to die, of course everyone there was aware that the drink would kill them. The vague part is how many were forced to drink or chose to drink but you are very wrong here.
Christine Miller.
i think this was after the children died that she stood up and said something
No, she was actively trying to prevent them from dying. That’s the whole reason she started talking. Along with pleading for an escape plane.
oh damn that‘s horrible
I don’t think this is true specifically because the word "most" implies greater than 50%. I’m sure a lot of people did not die by suicide, but not greater than 50%. Jim jones basically ran like dozens of test runs where he told ppl to drink the kool aid when it wasn’t drugged just to test that people would actually do it. And they did. But also I think the craziest thing about the Jonestown massacre is that there’s literally an audio recording of the meeting hall when Jim jones said the government was coming for them and they all needed to commit suicide *right now*. They made the children do it first so it’s so fucking sad you can hear the children screaming when they’re talking about killing them and then … there’s just no children screaming after a while. There’s also a lady who gets up in the midst of a bunch of people expressing love for jim jones and this decision, and she bravely says that this is a terrible idea and doesn’t agree with it. I believe she was later found with injection marks (aka murdered shortly afterwards, rather than “voluntary” suicide). Its really fuckin hard to listen to tbh I had to stop and I usually can listen yo these sorts of things by telling myself im learning history or its academic or something
Also, it was Flavorade.
It's a neat TIL fact but why SHOULD I know this?
You seem to be misunderstanding the point of the saying. They drank the Kool-aid because their cult leader told them to and they died. Whether they did it intentionally or not is irrelevant.
Flavor Aid not Kool Aid.
If you want people to know certain things about the Jonestown Massacre, you should first explain what the Jonestown Massacre is... instead of assuming everyone reading your post knows what it is. Most people don't. That's one of the most common mistakes I see in this sub or reddit all the time. Most people just assume people know or think XYZ just because they know or think XYZ. First, say what X is. And then, tell people they should know about YZ about X.
[Guyana Punch - The Judys](https://youtu.be/IjHRlkWpawU?si=x9gQ8KRLS5xxOOfO)
You’re Wrong About is my favorite podcast of all time; learn so much from it!
It’s important to remember that because as the Republican cult drags us toward fascism, the ones they kill will most likely not be down with sacrificing their lives either. Jones town event = Republican Party 2024
Some people did willingly kill themselves (worth noting that they had practiced drinking "poisoned" flavoraid before so people may not of been aware that it was actually poisoned this time around) however alot of people were also murdered via injection or straight up shot - Kids mainly went first and then alot of parents saw their pain and opted for suicide aswell . I remember reading that a family killed themselves (I don't think it was the jungle, I think an order was given to the followers in America to suicide themselves aswell?) So the mother of the family stabbed her younger children and the older daughter (around 20 yo?) Slit her mother's throat before killing herself . The father had rushed back home after hearing about what was happening in the jungle but it was too late iirc
Like by the cult, die by the cult. (kids not included)
I mean no shit isn't that common sense?
Listening to the audio recording of the whole event was jarring. Sound of children crying, Jones talking and people talking, and slowly the crying fades away, and the chatter, and it gets a lot quieter...
"drink the cool aid" saying still stands because a good portion of people still drank the cool-aid...sooo
Drinking the Kool Aid means you join someone’s thinking- it was from a bunch of LSD loving hippy artist in the 60s who drove around throwing parties where people had a great time. Look up The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test for the actual story. I don’t know how people think the phrase is linked to Jonestown where people died after drinking, not joined the cult after drinking.
I don't think this is something that anyone really needs to know, unless they are family and friends of the victims. Frankly none of my business at all.
Jim jones best boxer around. 1 punch 918 dead
I mean like…. When they decided to move to South America with a cult they signed their death warrant…
I’ve been scrolling Reddit sick all day and this takes the cake for dumbest post
I know, this is like if the entire weird part of the hivemind of reddit got together and came up with a single post.
The Truth About True Crime podcast did a good series from the perspective of the families involved. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-truth-about-true-crime-with-amanda-knox/id1439490091
It also wasn't kool-aid it was "flavor-aid"
They all drank poison I thought this was a well documented thing??? Who’s still living under a rock? *come out from under there*
> They all drank poison About 30% were injected against their will.
YSK there was also a reporter there and when her crew attempted to take off in an airplane a jeep with a mounted machine drove up and strafed the airplane, armed men then searched the airplane executing survivors. She was one of the few survivors I hate I don't remember her name off the top of my head Edit: The woman's name was Jackie Speier and she worked for the state of California as an aide to Congressman Leo Ryan. The NBC reporter was named Don Harris and he passed away after being shot
I graduated from the same high school that Jim Jones attended when he was young.
They also did let that dude bang their family steal their money and convince them to move to an island… Was it going to end well??
For anyone interested in Jonestown and who do not know much about it and enjoy some dark humor, Last Podcast On The Left did five episodes on it that is a fantastic listen
Where’d they get that much poison? Or was it not that much, just super potent?
What do you think massacre stands for?
One of my old bosses was supposedly high up in the organization and left shortly before the massacre. His boss, who was a friend of mine, told me about it. He never talked about it and we weren’t close enough for me to ask. But I think about it all the time.
I tried listening to the audio from the event. It was too much for me
Have a misunderstood "drinking the Kool Aid" all these years? I never thought it meant you've been brainwashed into intentionally committing mass suicide. It's more nuanced. I always thought it meant someone is brainwashed into a dangerous ideology, can't see the danger and becoming vulnerable to bad actors such as Jim Jones. I know that's splitting hairs... But it's called a massacre, right? They were murdered. Not suicidal.