People barely realize the dark origins of the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid"

“Drinking the Kool-Aid” has become a common phrase in the American vernacular, but the phrase has a sinister origin with its roots in a violent cult and mass murder.

The phrase originated from a tragedy in Jonestown, Guyana, where more than 900 people died in a mass murder-suicide plot.

The frightening event took place on November 18, 1978, when cult leader Jim Jones forced his followers to drink a powdered fruit drink containing deadly cyanide.

It was reported at the time that the drink used as the catalyst for the poison was Kool-Aid, which eventually led to the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid.”

Oddly enough, the powdered substance used was actually Flavor Aid, a less popular brand of powdered sugary drinks.

Many Americans have forgotten the Jonestown Massacre, but the expression associated with it has endured. A post on Reddit went viral as people began to realize the strange origin of the phrase.

A Reddit user asked under the “Ask an American” thread what Kool-Aid was and where the popular phrase came from.

“‘Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid’ is a darkly humorous warning to another person,” one comment read.

“That’s a really, really good insult to use, IMO, it’s us saying ‘you’re so stupid that you believed something so dangerously stupid, it’s the same level of danger that killed others” without really saying it,” added another. .

A Kool-Aid-like drink was used to administer poison to more than 900 people at a Jonestown complex.

Jim Jones is a famous cult leader known for being the mastermind behind a mass murder-suicide plot.

Editors were shocked to hear the phrase’s gruesome origin, with one commenting: “I had no idea.” It’s wild.

“There is nothing in Jonestown that is not the utter darkness of the human soul from which we should naturally recoil with fear and disgust on a fundamental level,” added another.

The tragic events that unfolded in 1978 occurred after the infamous cult leader Jim Jones rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s in Indianapolis, Indiana as a notable religious figure.

He eventually founded the Wings of Deliverance, known as the People’s Temple, in 1955.

Jones preached against segregation and became known for his progressive causes. He headed the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission from 1960 to 1962 and established homes for the elderly and those suffering from mental illness.

What began as a beacon of social change quickly took a dark and menacing turn.

After the church moved from Indianapolis to San Francisco, California, in 1965, rumors of abuse began to circulate within the temple.

By this time, Jones had convinced hundreds of people to join his church, and congregations were springing up in major cities.

As allegations of fraud and abuse intensified, Jones plotted to run his ministry in a Jonestown commune.

In 1977, hundreds of clergy visited the compound. They created a community, but Jones’ vicious leadership manifested itself in the form of a mini-corporation where temple members were constantly mistreated, according to an FBI investigation.

Kool-Aid quickly became associated with the Jonestown massacre after the 1978 tragedy.

Hundreds of bodies discovered after People’s Temple members drank poison

The complex operated for years before the mass murder-suicide.

Concern returned to the United States about what was happening at the compound, eventually prompting California Congressman Leo Ryan to intervene.

Ryan embarked on a mission to Jonestown with a group of journalists and government officials in November 1978. They interviewed Temple members and coordinated an escape plan for those seeking to return to the United States with the band.

While waiting for their plane on the airstrip, the group noticed a dump truck approaching from Jonestown with several armed men on Nov. 18, according to the FBI.

A Peoples Temple loyalist named Larry Layton shot at the group, killing Ryan and four others.

Tim Reiterman, a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, managed to escape the gunfire and later described the gruesome scene in the newspaper.

“Even though I couldn’t see over the tall brush, I could hear the shots becoming less frequent. Then there were only a few. My arm was gushing blood, so I took off my belt and pinched the larger wounds,” Reiterman wrote.

“I heard a few more gunshots and saw the tractor drive away. After they left, I came out of the bush and saw five bodies around the plane. Other people were injured.

Layton was arrested by Guyanese authorities and the rest of the survivors were cared for in military tents.

Jim Jones often attended rallies and spoke about integration before leaving with his supporters for Jonestown.

Hundreds of people, mostly Americans, lived in the Jonestown compound before their gruesome deaths in November 1978.

The Rev. Jim Jones became known for his preaching in the 1950s before founding Peoples Temple.

Stephan Gandhi Jones was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. He survived the Jonestown Massacre and is now the father of three daughters.

Congressman Leo Ryan was killed after trying to help Peoples Temple members flee to the United States.

As the haunting scene began on the airstrip, frightening events unfolded in the commune.

Jones feared retaliation for his crimes and, that same day, ordered hundreds of members to drink Flavor Aid laced with poison. Those who refused were shot. The children would have been told to take the poison first.

Several survivors of the mass tragedy, who escaped or left the town on November 18, spoke out in 2018 on the 40th anniversary of the tragedy.

Stephan Gandhi Jones, the biological son of Jim Jones and his wife Marceline, survived the massacre while participating in a basketball tournament that day.

“I focused my rage on Dad and those around him, rather than taking care of myself,” he recalls of his grief following the tragedy.

Questions remain as to how the mass murder-suicide plot was carried out and how Jones was able to keep the Temple operating for so long, but many still remember the infamous Flavor Aid drink that murdered hundreds of people in the tropical forests of Guyana.