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The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power. What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . . Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day. Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.
Publication Year: 2021
One of my favorite things about this book so far, is how well cult language is explain, the comparisons between cult leaders, influencers and politicians is perfect because it points out how much the right words can do to someone’s mind, how much the right words can make vote for certain politician, or make you follow set influencer, o even, make you commit mass suicide. I find all of this very interesting because I’ve always been curious about how or why people get into cults, and one of the most important things about getting into a cult is language.
I love how this book is divided by different types of cultish activities, like, the ones we know as cults, then religions we also know as cults and so on. I’m, also, happy to report that I, in fact, know about every single cult the author mentions and I’m very proud of myself because I’ve spent countless hours researching set cult activities and groups, I knew it would come in handy, eventually. 🙂↕️
Started last night, and as someone who’s very fascinated with cults (no I don’t want to join one, I’m just a curious person) I found this very interesting! Also, I felt personally attacked when she mentioned Taylor Swift fans because I swear it’s not a cult 😹