Before 9/11, the single greatest loss of American life in a single day due to a deliberate act was the Jonestown Massacre of the People’s Temple Cult. On November 17th, 1978, 918 people including their leader Jim Jones committed mass suicide at his behest. They laced gallons of cyanide into Flavor-Aid (A cheap alternative to Kool-Aid) to do it. Many did it with vigor and excitement, others needed persuasion to go through with the act. Some, including Jones’ wife Marceline, actually tried to stop it when it was too late and had to be held down to take the poison. Nearly an hour later, the town was no more and hundreds of corpses, a third of them children, were splayed across the jungle settlement they had escaped to months prior because in their own words, they needed a “socialist paradise” away from the “creeping fascism” of the United States.
In addition to my own reading on the subject, I listened to the God’s Socialist podcast series on the subject by Darryl Cooper, which I recommend to you all for more details on the things I mention. There’s also the book by Jeff Guinn, which much of the series is based on. It’s quite fantastic, though extremely long (30+ hours). It was worth the many hours however when you consider it a series not just on Jim Jones himself and his cult, but on their actions within the context of the broader decades of the leftist radical movements of the 60s and 70s that became wiped from the minds of Americans today. Many were astonished during the Summer Riots of 2020 when large-scale disruptions to civilian life and open violence were done in the name of “Social Justice”, but don’t know that the 70s in urban areas had many acts that were similar in nature, but on a more concentrated scale. They seemed to have either forgotten or not learned at all about the Weather Underground bombings, the Symbionese/Black Liberation armies nationwide crime sprees, and the story of the Black Panther Party which when told today are framed as a black group that wanted a few policy changes and were persecuted for it; when in reality many had faced such a fate due to the fact they were openly calling for armed uprisings and genocide against White Americans and were in the active process of doing so had the authorities done nothing (as is the case today).
And just like those radical movements which were dominated by murderous hippies, drug addicts, pedophiles, etc. were wiped from national memory and the education system whenever the “Civil Rights Movement” is brought up, the story of Jim Jones and his cult suffered that same fate. This topic is not one you’d expect to be brought up in schools, but the fact you have to look hard to find the details and witness accounts of the horrors brought about and influenced by his cult is staggering. It’s mostly hidden and never spoken about - and if so, always emphasizing Jones’ ‘Christian’ elements (there weren’t any) - is that it exposes the abject malice, incompetence, and degeneracy of America’s leftist elites. And not in a time like today where you’d easily expect it, but from decades ago which boomers today both conservative and liberal reminiscence upon with a hollow joy.
Jim Jones was a raving Communist his entire life. He’d been interested in the literature since he was a teen and debated Christians in his small Indiana town about Socialism and Communism frequently. He’d pretend to be a Christian when he first got started, gathering many members throughout the years from the fringes of society. He switched from that to his own brand of socialism called “communalism” based on racial equality and charity. Then it became outright Communism, with an emphasis on himself as the prime figure of worship. All of this was surrounded by hard work on racial equality and integration, making friends with and receiving the admiration of not just leftist radicals, but progressive politicians as local as the mayor of San Fransisco (whom he helped elect), and as high up as the wife of the president of the United States.
Other known figures that Jones became friends with include: Angela Davis, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, Jane Fonda, Harvey Milk, Mervyn Dymally (The Lt. Governor of California), Jerry Brown, and others all at the very least spoke at People’s Temple a few times and at most were close friends with Jones. Many of these people mentioned are hailed today as civil rights heroes, their symbols and legacies cherished, their ideas heralded as genius and “revolutionary”. Yet not a single one of them minded or detected something wrong with the lunatic preacher proclaiming himself as a god in every speech he gave. They never deemed it strange that he performed “healing powers” on people. Or better yet, the psychotic deranged nature of the people who followed him, spying and tailing anyone (including many journalists) who dared ask him questions he didn’t like.
What’s so fascinating about People’s Temple is how leftists claim today, with total seriousness, that the CIA was out for the throats of communists worldwide. That they were constantly “sabotaging” them and ruining the ideal Marxist world, yet this same organization didn’t seem to care that an explicit communist community was proliferating right in the Bay Area of San Fransisco, California for decades. This didn’t just extend to their beliefs as a group. Every behavioral aspect of the People’s Temple resembled a mini communist regime. Just like in the Bolshevik Revolution, the Temple’s main membership consisted of convicts, criminals, and others barely hanging on to civil life. Every single major failure due to their own malfeasance was blamed on a CIA Imperialist conspiracy. They had spies out for every member of the Temple, and no one knew who was one, including children who were encouraged to rat out their parents for disloyalty. Family ties were severed because women and children belonged to “the community” now. Struggle Sessions were a regular occurrence to ensure commitment whenever Jones was challenged, which involved frequent physical beatings and sexual torture (including that of children). The Temple’s “planning commission” that Jones led was made up of well-educated whites and “intellectuals”, while all the dirty work was done by the poor colored folk. These characteristics are universal to every communist nation that’s existed, and yet here it was modeled perfectly in one of the most progressive cities of our very own United States of America.
And even when they left for their ‘socialist paradise’ in Guyana, the Temple members realized quickly it was far from one. It had the uncanny resemblance in every aspect to a Soviet work camp, where the masses slaved away at building the cursed place and ate slop as Jones and his closest family and friends sat back and enjoyed themselves, with Jones on the radio all day reading communist literature and having meth-fueled ramblings about the CIA and US State department being out for them. The constant drug use and deteroriating mental state, as was the case with disintegrating communist leaders, set Jones on a frenzy which in turn put his people into a frenzy, where they all invented hysterics familiar to those reading this about "fascists” coming to kill them all from out of the jungle. They were screaming that Nazi mercenaries were going to come and take their children. In the middle of their frenzy one night in 1977, Angela Davis, hailed today as a progressive hero, patched in by radio to give them this message:
STATEMENT OF ANGELA DAVIS
TO JIM JONES OVER RADIO PHONE-PATCH
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1977
This is Angela Davis. I would like to say to my friend Jim Jones and all my sisters and brothers from Peoples Temple who are in Guyana there: know that there are people here, not only in the San Francisco Bay Area but also across the country, who are supporting you, who are with you. I can personally speak for the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Oppression in cities throughout the country, from Birmingham, Alabama to (inaudible) that there are people who are aware of the contributions of Peoples Temple to our efforts to, for example, free Rev. Ben Chavis and the Wilmington 10. We know that you have participated and brought people to all the marches and demonstrations, and thousands of petitions that have been sent to government officials have been circulated and signed by members of Peoples Temple. And so we are very deeply obligated to you for what you have done to further the fight for justice, to further the struggle against oppression, to further the fight against racism.
I know you are in a very difficult situation right now and there is a conspiracy. A very profound conspiracy designed to destroy the contributions which you have made to our struggle. And this is why I must tell you that we feel that we are under attack as well. When you are attacked, it is because of your progressive stand, and we feel that it is directly an attack against us as well. Therefore, more of us need to know that we will be carrying on this idea, that we will do everything in our power to ensure your safety and your ability to keep on struggling.
(In response to loud ovations to hundreds of people with Jim Jones in the Guyana interior, Angela states:) I attempted to say, though not very eloquently, that we are with you, and we appreciate everything you have done. And we know you are going to win, and, in the final analysis, we are all going to win.
She didn’t know she was confirming their paranoia, but that’s exactly what she did. In this video (WARNING, it’s extremely uncomfortable to listen to. Watch at your own discretion), which records their final moments after deciding to drink the cyanide, they refer to their act as “Revolutionary Suicide”, a term from a book of the same name by Huey Newton, which is still passed around in Black Lives Matter circles today.
When first learning about the many aspects of Jim Jones’ crimes, I chalked it up to incompetence and stupidity. But after giving it more reflection and reading, it’s clear that they really knew. They just didn’t mind it, because the insanities he resembled were not uncharacteristic of leftist tendencies and the desire to rally anyone to their side, no matter how dangerous they are to those who can easily be taken advantage of. For those of you who think and say “the left has gone mad!”, then please learn from this story that none of their absurdities are new. They were always this insane. Much of today’s left isn’t that much different from Jim Jones’ devoted worshippers, the only difference is they worship other idols.
I didn't know much about Jim Jones aside from the most basic facts: a cult leader who lead his cult to suicide.
People are hungry for something to believe in, to connect with. We were made this way by God because we are incomplete without Him.
'Jim Jones' is what happens in a world that abandons God and replaces God with something/someone else.
I used to think that people who spoke of a ' decades long plan to control the world' were to put it kindly, a little unusual, but it is quite obvious to me that there is a force trying to erase God from earth. On Feb. 13 we celebrated the feast of blessed Cardinal Alojzija Stepinac who said this 80 years ago.
Had a hard time listening to that tape. The children crying out in torment. So sick. Wish I never listened. How easily people are deceived.