What is jonestown and whats so scary about it?

I don't know about scary, but it was pretty messed up deal. Jonestown was a town in Guyana in South America where a cult lead by Jim Jones committed mass suicide. A total of 900+ people drank cyanide laced cool-aid and died. Sounds to me it was more like mass murder by Jim Jones or whoever, but then again it was a cult. The event happened in the 70s, and it was pretty shocking. To this day, when someone says "Don't drink the Kool-aid!" they are referring to the Jonestown massacre. It mostly means, "don't commit suicide(like your job, or reputation wise)" or "don't blindly follow the leader ( to your doom)"

wikipedia has a very good write up on the massacre. To sum it up, 900+ people volunteered to go to South America, and built a colony called Jonestown after their religious/cult leader Jimmy Jones. Jones was originally one of the most popular faith healers of the day, and he was well known for bridging the racial divide that was otherwise tearing apart the nation. Unfortunately, he was insane. He took all of his faithful followers into the jungle, used them almost like slave labor, separated the families into groups, isolated dissenters, and through terror and tyranny kept the entire compound under his control. When family members from the states asked the U.S. Government to look into it, the California Congressman sent to investigate was killed.

Jones, already had his final out planned, through routine suicide drills, he'd already convinced more than half of his followers to voluntarily drink poisoned koolaid. After Congressman Ryan's murder, he did it for real. The children were either given oral cyanide or inject, while the adults drank the koolaid or were shot. Very few people escaped. It's terrifying what a religious maniac can convince people to do.

Look it up, I'm sure there are articles on it "The Jonestown Massacre" was a terrible example of the power of a cult and a cult leader. Basically all these people were followers of a leader who convinced them that they should all commit suicide and die together so that they could come to heaven with him. Parents gave poison to their children then drank it themselves. Here's one website, there are many others: http://www.culteducation.com/jonestown.htm

On November 18, 1978 912 followers of American cult leader Jim Jones ("Peoples Temple") died in a remote South American jungle compound called "Jonestown" in British Guyana. Some members were shot, others were forced to drink poison, but most willingly participated in what Jones said was an act of "revolutionary suicide."

heres a source

An example of what blind faith and irresponsible leadership cost the world. There are 2 sides to religious practices. You are either open, willing to accept and welcome all or you are exclusive and condemn everyone. Rev Jones was the latter. I'm sure that there are many a book written on the incident and how he was a drug addict and how the children were killed first and so on. But people ignore those signs and even encourage behavior like that by giving religious figures a power that was never intended for them to have. The moment you surrender your will to another person or any group of people your humanity is lost to that entity.

It was this preacher guy, named Jim Jones and he had this big church going on here in the US, and convinced all of his church members to go down to South America with him to live their religiously and supposably in peace.

He called the town where they were gonna live, Jonestown. Jim Jones was crazy and totally mentally messed-up for one, and was on a ton of upper and downer drugs. During his drug phsycosis, he was trying to brainwash the whole town and one day tried to make all the towns people commit suicide by drinking some cool aid that had a toxic poisen in it. They were told to drink the cool aid or be shot. Tons of people were either killed or forced to be poisened, and all and all...bodys were evreywhere.

It was defenetly a big, insane, and tragic thing.

A religious crackpot fed his congregation poisoned kool aide. Hundreds died.

H

bunch o' dumb farts