I’ve always had a vague idea of what Jonestown was and know that’s where the phrase “drink the kool-aid” comes from, but I had never really looked into it before (it happened the year before I was born). Jonah Goldberg linked this yesterday, and I finally looked into it (well, checked Wikipedia) and found out it was all about Communism and Socialism (and also, it was Flavor-Aid they drank). Apparently, they tried to set up their own Communist state (and many liberal politicians were supporters of Jim Jones) and when the state was total crap they decided to commit suicide. I just assumed it was some guy saying he was Jesus, not Marx.
So why didn’t I know about this? You’d think it would be a bigger talking point for Conservatives when Socialism rears its ugly head.
Anyway, I guess the lesson of Jonestown is if someone wants to create a Communist or Socialist state, say no. And if they do anyway and it’s a total failure and they want mass suicide to teach everyone a lesson, also say no. Finally, never trust anything that comes from San Francisco.
say bye bye miss american pie
Jonestown: Another reason to beware false prophets who want to take your self-respect, individuality, and weapons away. Too bad most dems slept through History 101.
Yes and if I remember right our Dearly Beloved Communist News Networks made it out to be a christian community gone bad!!!! And alas people believed them and made it bad for all christians. It will only get worse now!!!
Also it happened during the CARTER YEARS!!!!
Why did you not know this? Because the Liberal media highlighted the fact that this was a group of fanatical Christian nut jobs, that’s why. To those of you who think that the media has just lately turned into an organ of the Democratic party allow me to educate you.
When the Republicans won the 1994 Congressional elections with “The Contract with America” the features editor and managing editor of a large newspaper stomped through the news room screaming, “I can’t believe how stupid voters were to elect these f*%^%*ing Republicans.” My sweet spouse simply sat and clapped. He was then yelled at from across the room to “cut that partisan crap out.”
Just for your edification the people who towed the party line, they still work at newspapers. My spouse who has been since the Reagan years trying to get people to understand what the problems are is now out of a job. The only way for him to have stayed there was to have a greater role in decision making and that wasn’t going to happen.
He says it feels like being pushed aside from a deadly auto accident and having the only first aid kit available. He’s sad, depressed, tired and disheartened. He, unlike the sycophants today is a real newspaperman, trained and tried in the military and a really good guy. My heart breaks for him so I’m kind of biased about the media thing. With our experience though it would be hard not to be.
Our Jonestown Kool-aid recipie: 1/2 oz amaretto and 1 oz vodka with cranberry juice on the rocks.
I was 13 when this happened and I remember it vividly. Being an immpressionable age, the images really stuck with me. What I was not aware of was the political part of it all. I just thought he was a crazy culitst. Nonetheless, I have always understood that dringing the KoolAid means to follow without questioning.
Thanks for the history lesson….
I was at LAX on Nov. 20, 1978 when the bodies arrived here back in the States. On my way to Lackland AFB for basic training. Most of the people in the airport seemed to think it was what those religious nut-jobs deserved. These same people felt the same when that wacko Reno bar-b-qued those in Waco. People don’t see the commune for what it really is, “Taking for those according to their ability, and giving to those according to their need.” Hence, socialism.
FrankJ, I recently watched the special on MSNBCSABCNBC or whatever about it, and I’m sure that’s why it came up. It was really amazing and gave me great “I told you so!” material for why Socialism is dumb and can never work. However, the program didn’t emphasize that part of it enough. The members that escaped mostly still hold all of that crap as true and right. They know so much of it is wrong and all the lies used to keep it going but they still lean that way. It was incredible. They beat the crap out of someone who did something they considered “Capitalist.” I’ll bet this is what an Obama rally looked like.
Yes, with Jonestown and Waco, the press made a big deal about emphasizing the religious aspect of the communes, blithely glossing over the communist utopia ideals of the leaders.
And as far as a leftist press goes, I distinctly remember that the only thing the press could find to report about with Gerald Ford was his lack of physical grace, and also what lengths they went to explaining the Carter administration’s position that there was nothing we could do about our embassy staff being held hostage in Iran.
If you can find it, watch the 1980 tv movie “Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones”
Brilliant performance by Powers Booth
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080832/
Hasn’t played on cable for many years, but very well done….
New idea for a Kool-Aid commercial:
(A building in Jonestown with Jim Jones and several of his cronies)
Jones: Guys, I think our community is screwed. We should all kill ourselves. I have some poison here that will do the trick (he holds up a baggie or a jar or something similar), but how can we get everyone to take it?
Crony 1: Put it in some chicken! Then everyone will eat the chicken and die!
Crony 2: No no, put it in the soap! Then everyone will die when they take a shower!
(Kool-Aid Man suddenly breaks through the wall)
Kool-Aid Man: Hey guys, I think I have the solution to your problem!
(shot of Jonestown, full of dead and dying people, lying near cups and pitchers of Kool-Aid)
Voice-over: Kool-Aid: the preferred drink of suicidal communist hippies worldwide!
Kool-Aid Man: OH YEAH!!!!!
I vividly recall the magazine cover (Time? Newsweek?) showing the bodies of the members who drank the liquid and perished. My first, and continuing, thought was that here is another religious cult that caters to a sick and vicious man and certainly didn’t pertain much to god. However, the libs have always picked up on the miniscule minority of religious groups, such as in Jonestown, and ascertained that all religion (particularly the Christian faith) is simply a vast cult, a refuge for the poor, pathetic, cerebrally challenged, brain-washed hicks in the sticks.
I also recall that many of the dead were women and children – and many were black.
It doesn’t take much mental exercise to see the correlation between Jim Jones and the Democrats today, and their demand for heightened fanaticism from their followers. Again, another generation that failed to learn from (recent!) history; another generation lost.
Oh yeah!
Did you hear about those “Heaven’s Gate” cultists killing themselves? Yup. Trying to keep up with the Jones’.
I just assumed it was some guy saying he was Jesus, not Marx.
Wow. I had exactly the same assumption until recently… I was watching a PBS special on Jonestown which got me intrigued. I then decided to do some research on the Internet about Jonestown when I realized it was waaay more about Marxism than some wierd form of religion.
I was thinking did I just misremember or was it media bias. So I read all the stories from AP/CNN, et al during this recent anniversary. They barely mention the Marxism aspect and really play up the religious part.
I’m a 9/11 Conservative and I often wonder how many other events from my earlier liberal days would I look at totally different if I could view them from an unbiased media.
I hate the media. I really hate them.
Did you mention the irony of this anniversary and http://www.howobamagotelected.com/?
Best to remember that a large number of those who drank the “Kool-Aid” at Jonestown were forced to do so by jones’s thugs.
The blind allegiance exhibited by many was overshadowed by the terror visited on many more.
It’s not that hard for me to say no to mass suicide, or rather, I am sure if someone asked me, I would run away. I don’t understand why it was difficult for the illuminati liberals to avoid the likes of Jim Jones. Are they so miserable they are looking for a way out? That’s it. They are so miserable they are looking for a charismatic leader to tell them how to live their lives, even if it means death.
People didn’t realize they had bought into mass suicide until some thug shoved a gun in their face and said “drink!”, or one thug held their arms and nose while another poured the Kool-Aid down their throat. By that time it was too late.
*”That’s it. They are so miserable they are looking for a charismatic leader to tell them how to live their lives, even if it means death.”*
AB…you pretty much just summed up the entire Obama movement.
I was 12 when the Jonestown suicide happened, and I, as well, until several yearsw ago was under the impression it was more about a cult than Marxism. This is why I haven’t paid any attention to Television or print news for over a decade. The very same people that were in parks smoking dope and attending Woodstock are now in charge of Television, newspapers, Hollywierd and the school system. Does anyone wonder wy 80% of kids are running around with their pants below their butts, have no job skills, and have a vocabulary limited to “Obama…Change!”?
Flav-R-Aid? That’s for people who are too poor to buy Kool-Aid. No wonder communism sucks. Communists can’t even afford real Kool-Aid.
I think Obama should spread the Kool-Aid around to those who can’t afford it.
Not Communes. Not Gated Communities. We need Walled Cities!
Law and order inside, barbarians and bandits outside.
(Kind of like Barter-Town, in Beyond Thunderdome, but cleaner).
No kool-aid. If you screw up, you get the boot and take your chances outside.
But where to build it? Sigh… location! location! location!
Somewhere in the heartland, I think. The coast are already so fouled with liberal swill that there is NO where to build such a place. Texas is too hot in the summer but there’d be plenty of undocumented workers to hire to build it. Still somewhere we could grow a variety of crops would be a good thing, wheat especially.
Give “the one” enough time. He and his muslim overlords will have us back to the 14th century in no time. Luckily for my family I have learned to cook over a cast iron stove and sew with a treadle machine (which I own) so we’ll be better off than most.
Obama akbar (hit chest with closed fist) will soon replace God Bless America. After all He’s already answered the Rev. Wrights prayers and damned it.
When my sister in law gave me the tired old line “Jesus was a community organizer”, I responded with “so was Jim Jones”. She hasn’t talked to me since.
I thought everyone knew about this. Funny part is, as others have pointed out, it was described by the liberal media as “christians,” when in reality it was another failed attempt at communism.
We’ll need access to coal, gas or oil. I’d rather avoid that pig-poo/methane powerplant arrangement, although… since our walled city’s schools will teach Real math and science, not political dogma, our young people would have the smarts to make even That work!
Freedom Of Religion, not Freedom From Religion;
Freedom Of Speech, not Freedom From Speech;
Freedom From Want, not Freedom to take what you want;
Freedom From Fear, not Freedom to prey on fear.
Democracy began in the City-States of Greece,
perhaps it will be preserved in the City-States of the next Republic?
First, I LOVE this blog – the Fred Thompson facts were the most side-splitting things EVER, and they kept me crying with laughter.
But second, I want to say a few things about the Jonestown massacre. You see, I remember all too well the news stories, the pictures of the hundreds and hundreds of people lying dead in Guyana. The reports that they were wacko Christians who killed themselves, etc etc. Just as I remember well the Davidian massacre at Waco. The reporting that these insane wacko Christians killed themselves rather than submit to the government.
And…it just wasn’t like that. It wasn’t like the reports (by a long shot) but although I haven’t read Goldberg’s piece yet, from what you say it wasn’t like that either. In fact, as it comes out later, the Davidians were murdered – by the US government in that case – they didn’t commit suicide. And the People’s Temple? Well it’s a bit more complicated, but if you really dig, if you really watch the documentaries that have come out in which the precious few survivors tell the tale, the tapes, etc…it wasn’t what it was purported to be either. Nor was it a failure of a communal system of living.
Now you can get plenty of the information on Leo Ryan’s murder and the survivor’s testimony from documentaries like “The American Experience” which was made last year, or “The Most Evil” which was more recent. But I’ll give a brief rundown of some salient facts – not too long, because it was horrible and I don’t like to think about it TOO much.
Ok, the People’s Temple (I wish there was a more convenient name like Davidians – but Jonesinians doesn’t work, so I’ll say PTP for People’s Temple People) fled the US because they were being interfered with by the government – cult paranoia was high at the time, and there were plenty of cults to go around. If you’ve followed Eject!Eject!Eject! you might know why this is Mr. Spock’s fault. But they fled under pressure to Guyana and I’ll start there, rather than what led to it. Once in Guyana, JJ (Jim Jones) helped organize the PTP into a pretty well flourishing commune. As we know, for a season, for a time, a commune can flourish – they were in a place where they could EASILY grow things to eat, they had resources, and they were all quite dedicated to the project. With voluntary cooperation and a willingness to work to one’s utmost, in a friendly weather climate and good soil, a commune can work quite well. And it isn’t as though they were there for long. It can go REAL well for a brief time, and sometimes longer. They had cabins for the elderly and infirm, day cares, blah blah the whole communal thing (no kind of life I’d want, actually) – everything but real modern conveniences and pleasures. (Communal living will never lead to advancement, no matter how well it does.)
What started to happen was JJ’s drug addiction started to get really bad and the pressure from within the US started to heat up. People were worried about their brothers, sisters, kids, parents, etc. who were living there. JJ got increasingly paranoid, and 24 hours, 7 days per week, his messages would go out on the loudspeakers – people say they couldn’t sleep for hearing the loudspeakers with his voice on it. They were cut off from ALL other communication. Each night his voice would get slurred but he was getting crazier and more mentally unstable. He got far more controlling – people who wanted to leave were not actually free to go. No one could go back to the US if they didn’t like it in Jonestown. A few trusted people were given brief vacations, but no one could break free. Children were taught to “rat” on their parents, he would send down messages that “Someone is going to come to you today and tell you he/she wants to leave. Don’t believe him/her. It’s a test. They’re from me. Turn them in or YOU will be liable.” And like I say, pressure from the US was mounting.
Leo Ryan the congressman organized a field trip for himself and some reporters to go down there and check it out – he was a hippie-type liberal and willing to believe the myths if they could tell him they were happy. And MANY were actually content, make no mistake. They had a big celebration on the last night, with music and dancing and the congressman happily announced that he had met many people who felt they had made the best decision of their lives going there. He said so on the speaker system. 24 hours later, of course, they were all dead.
Next day, before he and his entourage LEFT, they started getting oblique communiques from some of the people “We want to leave and we can’t. Help us leave.” Not from all, but from a few. The few who wanted to leave. One little boy started screaming when he saw a note passed to a reporter. The reporters did the stupidest thing possible…they told JJ that they’d received these notes, and that some people wanted to leave, but were forbidden. What a STUPID MOVE! They actually thought that because they had Leo Ryan there that they couldn’t get hurt. The fools. When Leo Ryan and his entourage and some escapees went to actually leave, the airfield was surrounded by JJ’s armed men, and you know what happened there (or some of it…the details are quite horrifying.) Most of them were shot and he was killed.
Back at the compound, JJ knew – and rightly so – that they’d never get away with THIS one. So he took to his loudspeaker and informed them that it was time, that they were NOT going to be left alone after this, and that it was time to lay down and die of their own choosing. People fought – one black woman fought eloquently, saying how the babies deserved a chance, a chance to live, and that he had told them Russia was an option, so couldn’t they try for that? Eventually under his hypnotic spell, the crowd shouted her down.
But when it started, it did not start as a line of people waiting for Kool-Aid. What FIRST happened was that the camp was encircled by armed men (and one of the survivors was like – WTF? where did THEY come from?) the elderly and infirm were injected with cyanide and died violently. Whole cabins of people were wiped out this way. Then came the children – the infamous “Mother Mother Mother Mother Mother! Don’t do this! Don’t go like this!” One of the precious few survivors watched his infant son injected in the mouth with the cyanide and go into violent convulsions and foaming at the mouth. There are pictures of CRATES full of used syringes – hundreds of people were simply, flat-out MURDERED by cyanide injection. By the time their parents, their old, their sick, and their babies were dead in their arms, some people (though still not all) welcomed their own injection. Many went willingly at that point. Others were simply still murdered.
At the end what you’re left with is the perpetrators and those who have no will to go on. I don’t know how many of them there were at that point, but I do know those were the ones who lined up to drink the Kool-Aid. The inner circle waited until last of course – as you can imagine with a violent death such as that one, those pretty little family poses we saw all those dead people in were NOT how they fell naturally; they had to be posed. That required time, dedication, effort, and manpower.
In the end, yes. You bet they lined up – and I wouldn’t judge them for that. Seeing everything you just put your life into murdered, knowing there is no hope for you but likely prison, and definitely no liberty? Knowing the man you followed is batshit insane and it’s all lost? Yeah, in the end, they drank. And once they were all posed, and once the inner circle was dead, Jim Jones died of a shot to the head. From him or his last man, I don’t know.
There was one man, an eloquent black man, who survived – (something like 5 people escaped into the jungle) – said “It wasn’t suicide – I will go to my DEATH to say it was NOT suicide! IT WAS NOT SUICIDE!” and he has no reason to lie about that, nor can he, if you ask me. He won’t even use the word suicide for the last to go – hell, I won’t either. After that other survivor saw his baby die in his wife’s arms, and his wife die in HIS arms (then escaped) keeps begging to this day for one minute – JUST ONE LOUSY MINUTE to catch his breath and figure out what was going on so he could help!
One reporter had been shot multiple times in the back as she played dead – she survives and weeps to this day when she speaks of the experience.
OK I’m totally riled up and emotional now so I can’t even go on – but let me tell you, Waco was a mass murder, NOT a suicide, and Jonestown? Was a little of both but most definitely a mass murder followed by the suicide of the hopeless. It had nothing to do with communism or communism’s failure. It was something bigger, worse…more tragic and sad than almost anything I know.
Jer 31:15
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
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Communism is murder.