"Drinking the Kool Aid"

[Magpie]

I have a simple knee-jerk reaction to this sort of debate:

Banning words - bad!

But I know it's more complicated than that. Personally I've stopped using the phrase, "I got gypped!"

Why? Because I was all up in arms over hearing someone say, "I got jewed," and an acquaintance of mine said, "Isn't it the same as 'I got gypped?'" And I suddenly realized that gypped = gypsy, and yes, it IS the same.

All those years I'd been using a nasty racial slur and I'd never even realized it.

Personally, I have no issue with "drinking the Koolaid". But I also grew up happily singing, "Ring around the Rosie" (about the Black Plague), and "The Great Ship Titanic" ("...husbands and wives, little children lost their lives, it was sad when the great ship when down!"). I use "going postal" and "going nuclear" and all sorts of other phrases. Organizations have "hatchet men" and "head hunters". I think Nazis are inherently hilarious - and besides, what better way to cut the legs out from under Evil, than to laugh at it? (Oh... there's a phrase for you, "Cut the legs out from under" - I bet that's got an interesting origin, too!)

In a way, I think a phrase like "drinking the Koolaid" helps to preserve the memory of that terrible event in our society, even if most people don't know the story.

So, yeah... Banning words - bad. Except some words, but wait... I just used "gypped" to explain why I don't use "gypped". How that for consistency?

 

[allison443]

It wasn't even kool-aid at Jonestown, it was flavor-aid.

I watched a documentary on Jonestown where they pointed that out! I had always thought it was kool-aid.

 

[PatsGirl]

Stuff like this...if you don't like it you can choose not to use the phrase. I think most people look at the Jonestown followers as people who believed in something so much they were willing to commit suicide and include their children(who were innocent); this being a foolish thing. thus the comment becoming part of today's lingo: if you are so foolish that you are willing to follow blindly you 'drink the koolaid.' It's pretty easy to understand the reference and although I rarely if ever use it, I have no objection when it is used.

What she said

 

[merekc]

Not to flame or start a huge fight, more out of curiosity, but do the people who are offended by terms such as "drinking the Koolaid" cuss/curse? I'm not asking if you constantly include it in your vocabulary. Do you even let slip a curse word in rare circumstances? I think these words are probably considered more offensive to a greater percentage of the poplulation than phrases derived from tragedy.

I myself have not problem with the phrase.

P.S. I originally put in my note above that I was not asking about if they curse like a sailor. I removed it upon thought that this phrase is probably offensive to sailors even though it is part of our vocabulary.

 

[bicker]

I think these words are probably considered more offensive to a greater percentage of the poplulation than phrases derived from tragedy.

While I don't use vulgar words in public, I don't agree with your assertion here, that doing so is "more offensive" than the use of terms like "drinking the Kool-Aid" and "going postal". Specifically, these latter terms are generally used to disparage or attack someone else, i.e., as a means of showing overt disrespect. While at least one poster above claimed that they used at least one of these terms in regard to themselves, that's not the general case. By contrast, some vulgar words are regularly used in phrases that are actually complementary, as in, "She's ----'ing brilliant!" Also, even when used in a negative manner, often the target of the word and sentiment is something rather than someone. By contrast, you would never say that "the economy is drinking the Kool-Aid" or that "my car is going postal". Those insults are almost always reserved to apply disrespect to someone else.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather someone tell me that I'm ----'ing brilliant than to tell me I'm drinking the Kool-Aid.

In the end, the words don't matter -- what matters is the sentiment, the intent, etc. And insult is worse when it insults not only the person it is directed at, but also a whole group of other people. It's doubly disrespectful.

 

[klj27]

Fair question.... and I do not curse. I will say c r @ p every once in awhile and always regret it. I tell my children that we spend a lot of money on their education and there are many intelligent words to use in the english language and that they don't need to say rude ones. I am also offended (saddened) when people say oh my god. I am known to say oh my goodness a lot though.

 

[Uuaww]

you know what really grinds my gears? every scandal... using the suffix -gate.

Why couldn't it have happened at a 4 seasons or holiday inn?

 

[Judy from Boise]

I have a simple knee-jerk reaction to this sort of debate:

Banning words - bad!

But I know it's more complicated than that. Personally I've stopped using the phrase, "I got gypped!"

Why? Because I was all up in arms over hearing someone say, "I got jewed," and an acquaintance of mine said, "Isn't it the same as 'I got gypped?'" And I suddenly realized that gypped = gypsy, and yes, it IS the same.

All those years I'd been using a nasty racial slur and I'd never even realized it.

Personally, I have no issue with "drinking the Koolaid". But I also grew up happily singing, "Ring around the Rosie" (about the Black Plague), and "The Great Ship Titanic" ("...husbands and wives, little children lost their lives, it was sad when the great ship when down!"). I use "going postal" and "going nuclear" and all sorts of other phrases. Organizations have "hatchet men" and "head hunters". I think Nazis are inherently hilarious - and besides, what better way to cut the legs out from under Evil, than to laugh at it? (Oh... there's a phrase for you, "Cut the legs out from under" - I bet that's got an interesting origin, too!)

In a way, I think a phrase like "drinking the Koolaid" helps to preserve the memory of that terrible event in our society, even if most people don't know the story.

So, yeah... Banning words - bad. Except some words, but wait... I just used "gypped" to explain why I don't use "gypped". How that for consistency?

I agree that sometimes we start using a phrase that comes out of tragedy to both keep the lesson fresh, and try and take the "power" from the scary event and give it back to society. Jonestown happened while I was in HS, but I certainly have used the "kool-aide" phrase with a clear conscience.

 

[Squirlz]

you know what really grinds my gears? every scandal... using the suffix -gate.

Why couldn't it have happened at a 4 seasons or holiday inn?

Same with "aholic". Really? You're addicted to workahol?

 

[Ciao Mickey]

I saw a woman wearing a t-shirt a couple of weeks ago at the supermarket--it read:


I drink Tea not Kool-Aid


I thought it was funny as heck.

Didn't certain groups try to associate that tag (Don't drink the Kool-Aid) with Obama and his crew?

I know it's one of Bill O'Reilly's favorite sayings.

 

[nmmom95]

I saw a woman wearing a t-shirt a couple of weeks ago at the supermarket--it read:


I drink Tea not Kool-Aid


I thought it was funny as heck.

Didn't certain groups try to associate that tag (Don't drink the Kool-Aid) with Obama and his crew?

I know it's one of Bill O'Reilly's favorite sayings.

Oh, here we go...

 

[Magpie]

Oh, here we go...

 

[eliza61]

I am trying to wonder why this phrase became acceptable.

.

It's not acceptable but it did become popular. The phrase is, in my understanding meant to be insulting. It does relate to the massacre in that it means people are "blindly" following some thing without thought or resistance. Similar to what those poor people in Jonestown did.

As for why it is so popular? I guess for the same reasons any phrase becomes so.

"Going Postal", "Drama"

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Not to flame or start a huge fight, more out of curiosity, but do the people who are offended by terms such as "drinking the Koolaid" cuss/curse? I'm not asking if you constantly include it in your vocabulary. Do you even let slip a curse word in rare circumstances? I think these words are probably considered more offensive to a greater percentage of the poplulation than phrases derived from tragedy.

Why?

 

[mhsjax]

Why?

They are more offensive to me. They just sound bad, yes I say them sometimes, but I try to remind myself that to use them all the time shows a lack of intelligence when it comes to vocabulary, at least that is what my mom told me. The koolaid remark is just a saying to describe someone that follows blindly. Nothing more. Yes I was alive to remember where the saying came from. It was horrific. But it doesn't offend me when other people or I say it.

 

[ksumn1]

Sometimes ignorance or lack of knowled is why people use such phrases. I've heard but don't think I've used the drinking the Kool aid expression. I knew vaguely that it meant following the crowd but honestly had no idea where the phrase came from. Maybe because I was born in 1977? And it's not an occurence of my generation. Now, I know the roots of going postal, gypped (referring to gypsies and a negative connotation) and the "jewing down" comments (negative)

Maybe these phrases become part of popular culture and for those a generation removed from the event in which it is rooted, don't fully understand the negative connotations.

On a side note, I do curse. It's a horrible habit but I use it to provide emphais about how angry I am, how stupid the %^&*^%# thing is, or just how awesome something is. Yes, I know it's inappropriate and horibble. But I don't curse AT people. And I don't curse in public becasue it is offensive. it's a habit that I picked up as a dumb teenager and am trying to break now.

 

[MrsPete]

I am trying to wonder why this phrase became acceptable.

909 people died in Jonestown, Guyana after drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. Even if it was all suicide and not a trick by Jim Jones, why does it make it OK to use this phrase?

And don't forget Congressman Leo Ryan and some of his staff, who was killed by this cult's security squad on his way back to the United States.

I agree, but don't feel strongly about it.

However, something related that DOES bother me is references to "I survived ___". For example, years ago when Hurricane Hugo came through, people were wearing shirts that read, "I survived Hurricane Hugo". That's rather crass, considering that a good number of people DID NOT SURVIVE Hurricane Hugo. Or people have "Disney Survival this-or-that". If survival were really a consideration, you wouldn't be there. It seems tactless and thoughtless.

A big thing? No. Just irritating.

 

[Sparx]

I have a simple knee-jerk reaction to this sort of debate:

Banning words - bad!

But I know it's more complicated than that. Personally I've stopped using the phrase, "I got gypped!"

Why? Because I was all up in arms over hearing someone say, "I got jewed," and an acquaintance of mine said, "Isn't it the same as 'I got gypped?'" And I suddenly realized that gypped = gypsy, and yes, it IS the same.

All those years I'd been using a nasty racial slur and I'd never even realized it.

Personally, I have no issue with "drinking the Koolaid". But I also grew up happily singing, "Ring around the Rosie" (about the Black Plague), and "The Great Ship Titanic" ("...husbands and wives, little children lost their lives, it was sad when the great ship when down!"). I use "going postal" and "going nuclear" and all sorts of other phrases. Organizations have "hatchet men" and "head hunters". I think Nazis are inherently hilarious - and besides, what better way to cut the legs out from under Evil, than to laugh at it? (Oh... there's a phrase for you, "Cut the legs out from under" - I bet that's got an interesting origin, too!)

In a way, I think a phrase like "drinking the Koolaid" helps to preserve the memory of that terrible event in our society, even if most people don't know the story.

So, yeah... Banning words - bad. Except some words, but wait... I just used "gypped" to explain why I don't use "gypped". How that for consistency?

I don't like the phrase "got gypped" either. I've heard people say "Jewed down" meaning to bargain. (Sometimes instead of "jewed" they'll use the N word, which I absolutely will not say.)

I didn't even realize that it WAS G-Y-P-P-E-D for the longest time, either. I thought it was J-I-P-P-E-D, the way it sounds and I really had no idea what the word came from.

However, Snopes says that Ring Around The Rosie isn't about the black plague:
http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp I'm not really sure either way. I've hold both stories for it.

I think the children's nursery rhymes relating to historic stories are actually really amazing. Its verbal storytelling in the veins of how our ancestors kept history alive and taught things to the younger members of the society.