r/GlobalTalk • u/NotTRYINGtobeLame USA 🇺🇸 • Jul 23 '21
[Global]/[Question] In the US, if someone believes some cult's propaganda, we say they're "drinking the Kool-aid." Do you have a saying for that? Global
I hope this is a good definition of the phrase. If not, maybe other Americans can help me out.
I recently realized Kool-aid is not a global product, and this question came to mind. Thanks for any input!
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u/Captain_365 Jul 23 '21
Ireland also uses the same expression, but apparently "Taking the Soup" used to also be fairly common. It refers to the 1840s, where Protestants used to give out soup during the famine. The Protestants were also associated with the British government at the time, so people who took the soup were loyal to the crown/a traitor.
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u/eyetracker Jul 24 '21
It wasn't just the association, a condition of being fed was listening to a preacher try to convert you.
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u/floating-point- usa Jul 23 '21 edited Jul 23 '21
I agree. Ive always heard it used to refer to someone who goes along with a dangerous or harmful idea because of peer pressure or cult-like propaganda. In that sense its worse than ‘brainwashed,’ b/c it implies that the person knows better and is choosing to do/promote the harmful thing anyway to be part of the cult.
Also the saying comes from a really horrific event - the Jonestown Massacre (mass suicide) in 1978. The cult leader, ‘Reverend’ Jim Jones, convinced 900+ of his followers to drink poisoned kool-aid with him because the government was starting to look in to the cult over child custody and abuse issues.
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u/SirElliott Jul 23 '21
They actually used Flavor Aid.
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u/cincymatt Jul 23 '21
I wonder if koolaid has a PR guy specifically for this correction.
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u/SirElliott Jul 23 '21
I don’t know about that, but I sure know that I love the refreshing taste of Kool-Aid™.
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u/AaronTheAlright Jul 24 '21
Nope, just fellow LPOTL fans who are equally pedantic as me.
Hail Yourself!
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u/alcard987 Poland Jul 24 '21
We don't have anything like that in Polish.
The closest thing is "łykać jak pelikan" (swallow like a pelican), we use it towards someone that is very naive and believes every lie they are being told.
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u/Leisure_suit_guy Italy Jul 24 '21
In Italy we have a similar say, though we use the verb "to drink" (ironically enough), for example: "you drank all their bullshit, did you?"
In fact, when in an American movie someone says the phrase "I don't buy it", here it's translated as "I don't drink it".
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u/Nimsant Jul 24 '21
In Russian, there is an opposite: if someone tells lies, including propaganda, we say "he puts noodles onto our ears". That is why such videos exist https://youtu.be/HaqROXx2TvQ
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u/Vividienne Jul 24 '21
Haha, in Polish we say that someone "nawija makaron na uszy" (rolls noodles around one's ears), I had no idea that the saying is so widespread!
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u/GreenspaceCatDragon Jul 23 '21
I don’t know of an equivalent expression for Quebec.
Do you think (or do you know) if the expression originates from the Jonestown massacre ?
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u/NotTRYINGtobeLame USA 🇺🇸 Jul 23 '21
Yup, I'm pretty sure that's where it came from!
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u/squirrelcat88 Jul 23 '21 edited Jul 23 '21
Absolutely, it wasn’t a saying until after that, and it wasn’t right afterwards, either, as people were appalled by the Jonestown Massacre. I think it took probably a decade or so to become a saying. Regardless of the actual brand that was used, I think there was sort of an extra layer of horror in that they put the poison into the sort of product that before that was associated with groups of children, and it stuck. As a boomer, it was what our mums would put in a pitcher and bring outside when all the neighbourhood kids were playing together in the summer.
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u/miss_scorpio Jul 23 '21
We say it (well I do) in the Uk too, the Jonestown massacre is well known and of course, they weren't drinking Kool-Aid there anyway, the cyanide was mixed in with Flavor Aid so the actual drink is irrelevant.
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u/Moobs_like_Jagger Louisiana USA Jul 23 '21
many Americans refer to all such drinks as "kool-aid," regardless of the brand
same with things like kleenex, jello, etc.
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u/Glldinkiering Jul 24 '21
I’m terrible but I wonder what flavor they chose. Probably grape, it’s the worst.
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u/EroMangaSensei Jul 24 '21
I always assumed it was cherry, never thought any different. I looked it up and it was grape tho.
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u/SharkAttackOmNom Jul 24 '21
Grape does taste terrible. So poison grape probably didn’t raise any suspicion.
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u/Luutamo 🇫🇮 Finland Jul 23 '21
Yeaaa I always have had the feeling that that kind of cult stuff was more just an american thing. I really haven't hear any cults being in here. If you don't count people obsessing over their Apple devices.
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u/Calygulove Jul 24 '21
This applies to anything that has a culture of conformity, not just literally cults. Corporation you work for wants you to "be part of the family"? Anyone that becomes a kind of part of that and encourages others to do the same has "drank the kool-aid". Have an advertizement that discusses conformity as part of their marketing? "Build your home at Bauhaus! Ikea is more than a brand; it is a culture!" Kool-aid. It is definitely not just an American thing. I see it a bit in German companies, for example.
It is a derogitory term for corporatized lesser boot-licking, with the next step really just being an outright boot-licker. I might tease a co-worker that I am close with that they've drank the kool-aid, but it is also kind of a subtle warning to them that they're being a bit of a kiss-ass to the company and alienating themselves by going too far down the rabit hole of the company cult...ure. I definitely wouldn't say it directly to someone randomly, like any random coworker or a boss. Someone might use it in a context in reviews for working at a company like "they serve a lot of kool-aid" as a warning that the company has a predatory clique culture, or my friends might use it when referring to their new job asking them to "drink too much of the punch/kool-aid" meaning that they are having workplace friction for not tolerating the company rules.
Shit organizations are everywhere. I think it is just an aspect of capitalism, and not just an American thing, you know? I think it stands out more for the US since our companies ask wildly ridiculous things of us as opposed to the EU (like, wtf, a dress code where I can't show my tatoos? fucccck offff) but I've seen the same bullshit happen at companies I've worked at in Germany. Stay after work, make friends with your coworkers, fit in, do things the company way, do more for less, suffer no pay raise this year and think of your friends in the company -- we're a family. We're not doing it bad; we're doing it our way, together! Nah, man, that is some fucked up kool-aid shit.
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u/Pentosin Jul 24 '21
Laestadians.
And even tho Jehovah’s witness are part of a bigger picture, the individual groups behave pretty much like a cult. Probably some other smaller offshoots from kristianity that also behaves like a cult.1
u/Luutamo 🇫🇮 Finland Jul 24 '21
Jehovah's I can see. It's not as extreme as what cults are but there are certainly some cultist elements. Laestadianism feels more just exclusive and secluded. Still not cultist in my mind.
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u/bargainkangaroo Jul 29 '21
We have the newish mainstream Mestari-kultti and related underground qanon-antivaxx in addition to those religion based ones (including scientology).
We have had events like this in the past. Current ones might be unknown still.
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u/Mushgal Jul 24 '21
I think only the US and Korea have a big sect problem, so in Spain we don't have any phrase like that.
Maybe you could say "hacerse el sueco" is kinda similar? it translates to "acting as a Swede". You use when someone is acting as if they don't know what you're talking about, when they do know. I don't know whete the Swede part comes from tho lol
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u/tway15q1 USA (New England) Jul 24 '21
Meta comment: The original reference was to the Jonestown Massacre, but is a misnomer, as the flavouring agent used there was Flavor Aid -- which is still around, but much lesser known than Kool-Aid, which had a huge ad blitz at the time. The confusion started with investigators erroneously saying they'd found Kool-Aid packets at Jonestown. Also, it's just catchier, easier to say, and more recognizable to more people. So even those who know will still say "Kool-Aid", because everyone knows what they mean by it.
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u/Gelderland_ball 🇳🇱 (Netherlands) Jul 23 '21
I don't know any cult specific sayings that would make that clear but in Dutch we have the delightful saying "die heeft een klap van de molen gehad" which means they're not acting sanely. It literally translates to "they got smacked by the windmill" which is delightfully Dutch