drink the Kool-Aid

This phrase comes from the 1978 cult mass-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Jim Jones, leader of the group, ordered his followers to drink Kool-Aid laced with potassium cyanide. The phrase "don't drink the Kool-Aid" has come to mean, "Don't trust any group you find to be a little on the kooky side" or, "Whatever they tell you, don't believe it too strongly".
In the dot-com world it refers to how many dot-coms require 14-hour workdays, not to mention unpaid on-call weekend duty, resulting in a "drink the Kool-Aid" environment.
NetLingo Classification: Online Jargon
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