drinking Kool-aid

Mullins, Bill AMRDEC Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Tue Dec 26 17:52:40 UTC 2006


The ADS-L archives show several discussions of "drink the kool-aid" and
various other figurative uses of "kool-aid" in an indoctrination sense.
Here's a very early cite, right after Jonestown:


"The Age of Un-Reason" by Patrick Brogan _The Washington Post_; Jan 14,
1979; p. G-8 col 1.

"The climax of Leni Riefenstahl's film of the Nuremberg rally comes with
Hess shouting to the frezied faithful, "Hitler is the Party, the Party
is Hitler," just before the Leader appeared.  No doubt about it, if he
had ordered the SS to pass around the Kool-Aid, all those crewcut Nazis
would have tossed it back with the same fervor with which they cheered
Hess' ravings."

Not quite figurative, but it clearly shows that a new sense of
"Kool-Aid" was entering the public consciousness.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list