" drink the kool-aid "

 [ "drink the kool-aid" ]

1: To completely buy into an idea or system, whether good or bad.

  * e.g.,  ... Coach Bellichick got his players to drink the kool-aid. 

 [ "drink the kool-aid" ]

1: Going along with what a crowd desires. Often used when a person changes positions on a topic.

  * e.g.,  ... Dave got a haircut and a new suit. Looks like his company is making him drink the kool-aid. 

 [ "drink the kool-aid" ]

1: To make a wholehearted, unconditional commitment (to some group, or idea, or plan) in contrast to choosing an alternative. It emphasizes a resolute decision (good or bad) in response to a choice. This is a reference to the "electric Kool-Aid acid tests," which were LSD parties held in the San Francisco Bay area in the mid 1960's. Someone who was willing to drink the LSD-laced Kool-Aid had, symbolically, made a choice to join (if only for a few hours) a counterculture that stood against conventional society. Once you take acid, you're committed -- the trip lasts for hours and you can't cut it short or change your mind. Once you've drunk the kool-aid, you're firmly committed. IMHO it is not about suicide: kool-aid isn't a symbol for poison.

  * e.g.,  ... Coach got his players to drink the kool-aid. I really like Macintosh computers; I've totally drunk the Apple kool-aid. That berserk guy who tried to kill people at the Tides Foundation really had drunk the kool-aid that the right-wing media were serving. 

 [ "drinking the kool-aid" ]

1:  (non-pejoratively, uncommon use) To fervently subscribe into a cause or belief with passion and energy. (pejoratively, common use) To heavily buy into a cause or belief that is utterly doomed to failure and disgrace with complete disregard to all reasoning, evidence, and intuitions that clearly indicate such a result. Referring to an inability or unwillingness of someone to be persuaded out of believing obvious nonsense -- even when confronted with the facts -- often times out of a sense of loyalty to a group identity even if there is no reason to do so. Generally implies the complicity of an individual or a group of people in their own deception irregardless of whether or not they realize it.

  * e.g.,  ...  (non-pejoratively, uncommon use) Sharice is committed to protecting the environment, and if she has to drink the kool-aid to do so, then so be it. (pejoratively, common use) Karen is so crazy that she's investing money in Sears and for some bizarre "reason" thinks that they will be "restored to their former glory." She's sure into drinking the kool-aid. 

 [ "drinking the kool-aide" ]

1: To blindly follow, or believe something or someone without even questioning the facts. Refusing to agknowledge the real truth. Believed to have connections to the Reverand Jimmy Jones cult that committed mass suicide by drinking kool-aide spiked with poison.

  * e.g.,  ... If they beleive that, they must be drinking the kool-aide. 

 [ "Drinking the kool-aid" ]

1: A figure of speech that means to buy into the ideas or beliefs that someone else is selling, be it a company or a church. It strongly suggests that the ideas are nonsense and possibly dangerous. The phrase is a reference to the Jonestown massacre in which the cult leader Jim Jones led his followers to commit mass-suicide by drinking a poisoned fruit drink similar to Kool-Aid.

  * e.g.,  ... "You've been at that company too long and they treat you like crap. It's time to stop drinking the kool-aid." "He's been volunteering for that political campaign and it's all he talks about. Half of it is BS ... I wish he'd stop drinking the kool-aid." 

 [ "drinking the kool aid" ]

1: To blindly follow someone or something.

  * e.g.,  ... Guy 1: That new substitute is soo cool! 

 [ "drinking the kool-aid" ]

1: refers to accepting something blindly without thought or criticism.

  * e.g.,  ... p1: "Wanna start a cult?" 

 [ "drinking the kool-aid" ]

2: Linked with Cults and mass poisonings. The phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” refers to followership at its worse. It was coined after a delusional, pseudo-guru named Jim Jones led his cult, the Peoples Temple, to mass suicide. Over 900 people, including 304 children, killed themselves by drinking from a vat of grape-flavored drink laced with cyanide.

  * e.g.,  ... p2: "I'm not drinking the kool-aid" or 

 [ "Drinking the Kool-Aid" ]

1: To blindly follow and support a cause, sports team, religion, protest, political figure, etc. without first looking into it or researching it

  * e.g.,  ... Example 1: 

 [ "drinking the kool-aid" ]

1: Assimilate into the upper eschelons of corporate culture, at the expense of your soul.

  * e.g.,  ... Jack is really trying to get ahead at work. He doesn't hang out with the rest of the slackers, any more. I think he's been drinking the kool-aid.