Title: Drinking the Kool-Aid: Trump echoes Jim Jones by declaring “Don’t Be Afraid of Covid” | The Milwaukee Independent
Headings: Drinking the Kool-Aid: Trump echoes Jim Jones by declaring “Don’t Be Afraid of Covid”
Drinking the Kool-Aid: Trump echoes Jim Jones by declaring “Don’t Be Afraid of Covid”
“Don’t Be Afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate our life.” – President Donald Trump
“Go home, my darlings! Sleep tight!” – Reverend Jim Jones
“The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.” (February 24, 2020)
About The Author
Reggie Jackson

Content: One third of those who drank the Kool-Aid and died were children. Jones had adopted several children of color and was a strong advocate for social justice in the 1960s. He had fought for integrated churches, neighborhoods, hospitals, movie theaters, and restaurants – building a strong following in the Black community. Jones promised to build a “rainbow community” according to one of the survivors, Teri Buford O’Shea. She fled Jonestown three weeks before the mass suicide. His appeal crossed racial and class lines. O’Shea described his appeal for The Atlantic. “He was very charismatic and attracted people who were feeling vulnerable or disenfranchised for whatever reason. Most of them were African-American, but there were also white people, Jewish people, people of Mexican descent. There were religious Christians and communists.