Your team wins in impressive fashion. You feel that no other team in the world could take you down. In fact, anyone who thinks that your team isn’t the best is simply a hater and must be punished! How dare they try and find flaws in our performance!? WE TAKE NAMES AND KICK BUTT!
This type of thought is commonly referred to as “Drinking the Kool-Aid”, which refers to believing what the out of touch fans tell you. We’ve all heard it before, using it daily when it comes to sports. Still, one has to wonder where the heck this term came from?
13 & 0!!! Leigh Tiffin for Heisman!!!
Do the Kool-Aid manufacturers walk around with tin foil hats, claiming that purple men from Saturn killed JFK? Do people who have out of touch views prefer this cool beverage after typing 200 message board posts reflecting their thoughts? Where did this come from!?
My “research” (by research, I mean Google) took me to a strange encyclopedia without any pages (also known as Wikipedia), where I found my answer.
If you’re old enough to remember the Jonestown massacre, which I am not, you may remember the fact that the radical zealot Jim Jones led his followers to their doom. How did he kill them? By serving Kool-Aid laced with potassium cyanide:
The saying “Do not drink the Kool-Aid” now commonly refers to the Jonestown tragedy, meaning “Do not trust any group you find to be a little on the kooky side,” or “Whatever they tell you, do not believe it too strongly.”
Having “drunk the Kool-Aid” also refers to being a strong or fervent believer in a particular philosophy or mission — wholeheartedly or blindly believing in its virtues
Man, I am going to get some crazy Google search hits for this one…
If you happen to have a conversation with an over-zealous fan about how awesome the totally awesome ball boy happens to be, just remember that this term may not resonate the actual accusation you’re trying to make. I doubt anybody would argue with you if you claimed “Hey dude, stop drinking the beverage of death”
In short, uhhhhh………… just……….. just drink a Coke.
