People are just starting to 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 sinister origins, rooted in a violent cult and mass murder.

The phrase comes from the tragedy that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana, where over 900 people died in a mass murder-suicide.

This chilling event took place on November 18, 1978, when cult leader Jim Jones forced his followers to drink a powdered fruit drink laced with deadly cyanide.

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

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

Many Americans have forgotten the Jonestown Massacre, but the phrase associated with it has endured. The Reddit post went viral as people began to realize the amazing origins of the phrase.

A Redditor asked in the “Ask an American” thread what Kool-Aid is and where this popular term came from.

“‘Don’t drink the Kool-aid’ is a grim/blackly funny warning to another person,” reads one comment.

“That’s a very, very good insult, IMO that’s us saying ‘you’re so stupid to believe something so dangerously idiotic, it’s at the same level of danger that killed others’ without actually saying it,” chimed in another.

Redditors were shocked to hear the gruesome origins of the phrase, with one commenting: “I had no idea. This is wild.

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

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

Finally, in 1955, he founded the Wings of Deliverance, which became known as the People’s Temple.

Jones preached against segregation and became known for progressive causes. He served as head of the Indianapolis Commission on Human Rights from 1960 to 1962 and established homes for the elderly and those struggling with mental illness.

What began as a beacon of social change soon began to take a dark and menacing turn.

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

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

As allegations of fraud and abuse mounted, Jones planned to take his ministry to a commune in Jonestown.

In 1977, hundreds of clergy arrived at the complex. They founded a community, but an FBI investigation revealed that Jones’s cruel leadership turned it into a mini-society in which temple members were constantly molested.

In the US, concerns about what was happening at the complex increased again, which ultimately prompted California Congressman Leo Ryan to intervene.

Ryan went on a mission to Jonestown with a group of reporters and government officials in November 1978. They interviewed Temple members and coordinated an escape plan for those who asked to return to the United States with the group.

According to the FBI, while waiting on the runway for their plane on November 18, the group noticed a dump truck from Jonestown carrying several armed men.

Peoples Temple loyalist Larry Layton fired on the group, killing Ryan and four others.

Tim Reiterman, a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner, managed to avoid the shots and later wrote about the gruesome scene in the newspaper.

“Although I couldn’t see above the tall bushes, I heard that the shots had become less frequent. Then there were only a few of them. Blood was pouring from my arm, so I took off my belt and taped up the biggest wounds,” Reiterman wrote.

“I heard a few more shots and saw the tractor driving away. When they left, I crawled out of the bushes 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.

As the terrifying scene began on the runway, blood-curdling events unfolded in the community.

Jones feared retaliation for his crimes and that same day ordered hundreds of members to drink a flavored poison. Those who refused were shot. According to reports, the children were first told to take poison.

Several survivors of the mass tragedy who fled or moved away from the commune 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 playing in a basketball tournament that day.

“I focused my rage on my dad and his circle instead of focusing on me,” he recalls, discussing his grief after the tragedy.

Questions remain about how the mass murder-suicide plot was carried out and how Jones managed to keep the Temple open for so long, but many still remember the infamous Flavor Aid that murdered hundreds of people in the rainforests of Guyana.