Group Video: "Truth and Lies: Jonestown, Paradise Lost"

I first learned about the whole Jonestown story when I asked my dad what "drinking the Kool-aid" meant. He used to say it a lot--and still does, to be honest--when talking about Donald Trump and all the politicians and other assholes who seem to worship him. He told me that the phrase referred to people who will blindly follow someone who's manipulating them no matter her terrible they are. Then he went, "Do you know about Jonestown?" When I shook my head, he proceeded to tell me about it.

Jonestown sounds like such a nightmare to me. It's almost unbelievable how Jim Jones was able to convince so many people to follow him. The fact that he could even threaten them, blackmail them, abuse them, and eventually push them all the way to suicide and yet people still would remain loyal to him... it's so scary. It's scary how someone can become so influential and then use that influence for such terrible things.

It makes it even scarier to think that even I might've been convinced by him if I had been there, at least at the start. I can't see myself going so far as to leave my family behind and move all the way to a remote area in Guyana but some of the ideals that the People's Temple and Jonestown was based on didn't seem so bad. I mean, a church that preaches about social justice and inclusivity, provides services to the homeless, and points out the flaws of a capitalist society? It almost seems too good to be true... and I guess it was.

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