Talk:Drinking the Kool-Aid/Archives/2021

Alternative meaning > Acid Tests

I would change "Alternative Meaning" to "Acid Tests" giving it similar or equivalent stress. While not used figuratively in the book, reference to it's use as described in the book, IS used figuratively. In fact, use of the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid" is rich, carrying both allusions with it: blind-faith and submitting to an extreme test. HalFonts (talk) 16:18, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. By the way, I was one of those supporting this alternate meaning as the primary one. Now I bow down to the superior research in this article - I was wrong! XyKyWyKy (talk) 02:09, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm somewhat confused about referene to the electric kool acid test in relation to this phrase, based on my knowledge I don't recall this ever being commonly used prior to the People's Temple massacre. I would also question the meaing provided in the opening sentence. This phrase alludes to someone who blindly follows false leadership to the point of their own self-destruction.

This has popped up again. A recent edit inserted an alternative "origin" of the phrase based on the events described in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test to the top of the article. I moved it down, shortened it, and called it "Alternative Usage", then noticed this discussion and changed the header to "Acid Tests" because I'm not convinced it's really an alternative usage, and that actually seemed the most neutral way to go. If "Drinking the Kool-Aid" has any link to the Acid Tests _as a figure of speech_, that should be citable. The direct links between the phrase and Jonestown are thoroughly documented. Otherwise, a sentence about the Acid Tests might be useful merely to distinguish it from the common usage. Thoughts? 216.15.21.250 (talk) 06:09, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

The phrase "acid test" was used in Wolfe's book, but what is lost on later generations is that kool-aid was a common way to consume LSD in the sixties, a drug that causes people to become "spaced out", sometimes to the point of having hallucinations and delusions. The insult "you drank the kool-aid" was suggesting that the person was a delusional "space cadet" who had bought into some weird political propaganda , and was usually used by conservatives with buzzcuts, against left-wing hippie types, and this was before the Jonestown massacre. The whole Jonestown connection is brand new to me, and I've never heard that until seeing this. There was never a connotation of doom. Maybe it's a generational thing, with younger people linking koolaid to Jonestown, and changing the meaning, while older people retain the original meaning. (The phrase "Acid Test" was a pun, because the normal meaning is a rigorous quality-control test that determines the durabilty or strength of something, whereas Kesey was also meaning "acid" as in LSD. The phrase "Acid test" (for taking LSD) was not used outside of Kesey's little group of LSD users, so it is a mistake to have "Acid Test" as a section heading, because the phrase wasn't generally associated with kool-aid until the book came out. Maybe re-title the section, "LSD and Kool-aid".) I'm not going to fix it, just pointing out how wrong this article is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.147.120.93 (talk) 17:00, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

Yep. Read the book. I mean, it *was* a best-seller! Tom Wolfe was adept at creating and popularizing catch-phrases. Don't believe me? Try the google n-gram viewer: the phrase was in use before the Jonestown massacre in 1978, first appearing *after* the 1968 publication of the The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Just sayin. Lived through those times. Also: the phrase really took off when Reagan-era politicians started slinging it around: the Reagan economic plan forced the poor, the working classes to drink the kool-aid. Yeah, I recall that winter, Christmas, with entire families living in cardboard boxes under the elevated rail tracks. Criminal. 67.198.37.16 (talk) 21:43, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Boomer here. I remember people using the original meaning BEFORE '78. So putting it at the top of the page would put it into chronological order... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:1C03:4ED3:1887:EC9E:3758:A081 (talk) 01:56, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Yes I ran into this today. This article is completely wrong. kool-aid was a common way to consume LSD in the early 70s. Also it was advertised repeatedly on television with various flavors, which is what gave rise to the ironic expression. The phrase was used in that context, and still is. I added one sentence to the top of wiki article and a wiki Nazi immediately deleted it. (What Kool Aid have you been drinking?) Show me one popular usage where asking what flavor of Kool Aid has someone been drinking alludes to suicide. I bet you can not even find one. 90.78.118.234 (talk) 12:48, 25 June 2021 (UTC)