Letter: They drank the Kool-Aid

To the Editor:

In 1978, cult leader sociopath Jim Jones was being investigated by Congress for his role in the mass incarceration, manipulation and brainwashing of his followers. He ordered his followers to assassinate those investigators, and they were gunned down on the Guyana tarmac as they boarded the plane to head back to the U.S. Four Congressmen and their aides were murdered. One aide, now a Congresswoman from California, Jackie Spears, survived five bullets.

Jones then urged his cult members, who donated all of their wealth to him, to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid before taking his own life with a bullet to the head.

Fast forward 43 years, and we are witnessing the same delusional self-destruction of a large portion of American society.

In March, Dr. Deborah Birx, the Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, admitted that the lies, propaganda, criminal negligence, dereliction of duty and science denialism of the Trump administration, his followers in Congress and their right wing propaganda machine, were responsible for at least 400,000 needless American deaths.

To this day, a large portion of Republican voters, who are still duped to believe the “big lie” about a stolen election, also are manipulated by disinformation to deny the effectiveness of proven vaccines, mask wearing and social distancing.

How many more unnecessary deaths are acceptable before more of our fellow citizens, the Trump cultists who continue supporting this failure of Republican governance, stop drinking the poisonous propaganda Kool-Aid?

Bob Janz

McHenry