“Drink the Cool-Aid” has gotten too prevalent. It should be a rare color comment, not a marquee move. I blame it’s popularity on the fact that most people don’t know its original context or its current meaning, so that if someone throws its into a conversation people will usually say, “Right!”, especially when it is being used to talk shit about someone who “needs to shut up and drink the cool-aid” because it sounds like something you’d want someone who is not being cool to do. Let’s face it, it’s only a matter of time before some college student in a Massachusetts liberal arts college says “drink the cool aid” and thinks it means “try to be cool”. And that’s going to really suck when that happens.
-Shark
In Other News, People Need To Stop Saying “Drink the Cool Aid” So Much
July 1st, 2008 · 19 Comments
Tags: Shark
19 responses so far ↓
Turd Ferguson // Jul 1, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Kool-Aid?
Hip E. // Jul 1, 2008 at 4:46 pm
“Drink the Kool-aid” is almost never used to characterize someone in a positive light. It basically means someone has crossed from independent, critical reasoning on a subject to toeing the company line. It’s like calling someone a sheep or a fundamentalist. Only a vaudeville villain like Dick Cheney would ever say someone needs to drink the Kool-aid.
Johnny D // Jul 1, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Yea, Shark, who do you know who actually says that? I’ve heard the phrase, and I’m pretty sure I know of its origins, but don’t know many people who actually say it.
Shark // Jul 1, 2008 at 6:50 pm
People say “he should drink the Kool-aid” when they want someone to shup and get in line. So people will think that it means some obstreprous member of the group should chill out– cool off– and align with the group’s views. Then, my doomsday prediction is people will start to literally construing the phrase as just “becoming cool” or “Kool”.
Turd Ferguson // Jul 2, 2008 at 8:50 am
Laterhosen!
The Cabinet Shop // Jul 2, 2008 at 10:43 am
Hip E loves [Big Oil] Cool-Aid
Hip E. // Jul 2, 2008 at 10:57 am
I’ve never heard anybody say that someone needs to shut up and drink the Kool-aid. The only time I’ve even read about someone using “drink the Kool-aid” like this is in reading stories about the Bush Administration, where it was considered good to be a mindless rabid sheep, completely obedient to and supportive of every edict from above, no matter how evil. Maybe this kind of thing goes on in law firms, but as far as I know the phrase has never been used like this in our group of friends, or even in the evil big oil company I work for.
Johnny D // Jul 2, 2008 at 11:13 am
Shark, you’re just sick of hearing that phrase applied to yourself, you sellout yuppie.
Stickler // Jul 2, 2008 at 11:32 am
Oh Yeah!
Hip E. // Jul 2, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Johnny D., you need to just shut up and Snap into a Slim Jim!
Johnny D // Jul 2, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I’m currently eating a Hot & Spicy Tom-Toms All Natural Turkey Snack Stick by Wellshire Farms. Does that count?
PETE // Jul 2, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Agree with Hip E. here. I’ve never heard it used in your posited context, let alone enough times to warrant an entire rack.
Shark // Jul 2, 2008 at 3:38 pm
You all need to drink the Kool-Aid.
Stickler // Jul 2, 2008 at 4:00 pm
I once drank the Kool Aid in college and to this day I still have no recollection of what happened the rest of the night. I was found in the morning curled up in the fetal position passed out between two stalls, with Kool Aid stained across my face.
Johnny D // Jul 2, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I’ve heard that you’re not supposed to drink the Kool-aid at Phish shows because it might have drugs. Drugs are scary.
Thrill // Jul 2, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I’ve used the phrase myself with our group on a few occasions (usually derisively attacking Hip E’s defense of Big Oil), but I’ve never, ever used it with “should”, nor have I ever heard of anyone using it that way. I’ve only ever used it/heard it used in the correct “So-and-so drank the Kool-Aid” form.
Looks like Shark drank the idiot Kool-Aid….
Turd Ferguson // Jul 3, 2008 at 8:47 am
Hey re-tahd!
Kool-Aid Man // Jul 20, 2008 at 4:49 pm
OHHHHH YEAAAAH!
Rock // Jul 23, 2008 at 3:19 am
You guys are crack-ups. Here’s some clarity on the origins of drinking the Kool-aid… The cool-aid is the poison distributed by the Reverend Jim Jones to his 900 followers who believed that in committing mass suicide they’d be blessed in heaven or some such nonsense. It captures blindly following a charismatic leader no matter what unreasonable act was demanded of the follower. Heaven’s Gate and the FLDS are other examples of ‘drinking the Kool-Aid.’ It’s a stretch to apply it to professionals in government jobs, who for the most part honestly believe in serving their office, not blindly following a charismatic leader. Spend some time as an intern in the White House, Pentagon, Capitol Hill, UN, NATO, etc… and you’ll see the caliber of professionalism (not blind faith) that these people need to have to thrive in high-demand jobs like those.
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