catskewl:

Today in history, November 18, 1978. Cult leader Jim Jones ordered the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan, journalists, and defecting members on the airplane tarmac as they were fleeing “Jonestown” after going on a fact finding mission to investigate what was happening in the compound. Jones used this murder to tell his followers that now there was no escape from repercussions and that they all had to die before authorities came to kill them all for this transgression. Then he gave them only one option to escape this fate which was to drink cyanide laced Flavor-Aid and die rather than going back to the US. In reality, Jones didn’t want to give up once ounce of his power and figured that he would take everyone with him rather than ‘losing’. Over 900 good men, women and children were coerced into killing themselves by drinking the kool-aid.

That’s where the term “They drank the kool-aid” (that so many people use now without even knowing its origin) came from. It became a culture marker phrase that speaks to how horrible and traumatizing to society the aftereffects of learning everything that happened there was.