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Jonestown massacre: Why the phrase ‘drink the Kool-Aid’ hurts this cult survivor

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She escaped the worst murder-suicide in US history, but one thing still haunts this survivor, even 40 years later. Emma Reynolds@emmareyn news.com.au November 17, 20189:26pm Jonestown, anniversary of a massacre After she escaped the cult, Deborah Layton wanted to get as far from her past as possible, terrified of being labelled the “Jonestown girl” or “Kool-Aid kid”. She was the one who warned US authorities they needed to save the People’s Temple church members awaiting death in a remote jungle clearing in South America. Her testimony was the impetus for Californian Congressman Leo Ryan to lead an investigations party to the Jonestown camp in Guyana, South America — an arrival that triggered a mass murder-suicide that left 913 people dead. That was November 18, 1978, but the images of bodies strewn around the community are still as vivid 40 years on. But Deborah hates how the phrase “drink the Kool-Aid” has become a euphemism for unquestioning obedience, after Reverend Jim Jones’s fo...
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The Whitewashing of George H. W. Bush

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His many terrible acts are being ignored thanks to elite nostalgia and anti-Trump sentiment. By JEET HEER December 3, 2018 In the last few days, journalistic eulogies have abounded for George H. W. Bush, who died at the age of 94 on Friday night. It’s established tradition for honoring former presidents. But as Jon Allsop points out in The Columbia Journalism Review, the warm remembrances of Bush also display a distinct trend: evaluating the forty-first president specifically as a foil who highlights the perceived failings of the current commander in chief. Coverage of Bush’s life, Allsop notes, has been“dominated by favorable comparisons to President Trump. Bush’s death, much like McCain’s before him, became a metaphor for the death of civility in politics. A warm letter Bush wrote his successor, Bill Clinton, was held up as an artifact of bipartisan comity, as BuzzFeed’s Anne Helen Petersen noted in an insightful post . Many outlets highlighted Bush’s broad public popularity ... An...
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