Name: Malia's review of Cultish by Amanda Montell
Item: Cultish
Rating: 5
Author: Malia

Amanda Montell

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 lame 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.

The Language of Fanaticism

Cultish

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.

Ben Myers

Language is a leader’s charisma. It’s what empowers them to create a mini universe—a system of values and truths—and then compel their followers to heed its rules.

Lizzy Jensen

But in the end, I don't think the world would benefit from us all refusing to believe or participate in things. Too much wariness spoils the most enchanting parts of being human. I don't want to live in a world where we can't let our guards down for a few moments to engage in a group chant or mantra. If everyone feared the alternative to the point that they never took even small leaps of faith for the sake of connection and meaning, how lonely would that be? 

Mariane Ferrantino 

"It's work to think, especially about things you don't want to think about," 

Some say people who join cults are lost. But all human beings are lost to some degree. Life is disorderly and confusing for absolutely everyone.

In a social media-centered society, we’ve all been rendered at once cult leader and follower. 

A cult is like porn: you know it when you see it. 

Francesca

Camryn Lang

Helen 

Irdha C

Malia

I audio booked this and I’m gonna need to get a physical copy to underline things I’m gonna think about forever (esp as someone as who works in the “wellness” industry). However I didn’t enjoy how the MLM sections were written (but maybe that was just because I listened to them)

Incredibly interesting and so informative. Cultish is bursting with information, but the writing is anything but overbearing or dry. It well structured, witty and empathetic to victims of cults. I feel like it really opened my mind to the power of language and the role it plays in society as a whole. A really worthwhile read if you're interested in linguistics and role of language in cults, MLMs and concerning fitness groups. 

Marz 

A fascinating look into the role of language in cults & cult-like groups. Montell does a great job of making the information compelling & easily digestible, paired with snarky humor.

Turns out language is really interesting! Who would’ve guessed???

Alli

A fascinating look into the role of language in cults & cult-like groups. Montell does a great job of making the information compelling & easily digestible, paired with snarky humor.

Turns out language is really interesting! Who would’ve guessed???

I really enjoyed the author’s voice in this book. She offered an interesting insight into the word cult and what it means for society. 

Elizabeth Denny

Camilla

Patrick Book

It’s slight, almost to the point it seems like an expanded internet essay. But that’s a huge part of the charm, it’s concise and clear and extremely well-hewn.

Angelyn Francis

The fact that I finished this is a great example of sunk cost fallacy. I quite enjoy her podcast, but I did not like this book. I feel like sometimes she flips between using Cultish to mean a language and to mean sort of culty, and the editor didn't catch it. There isn't enough research or evidence here for the pretty shallow connections the author is trying to make. I got so frustrated every time there was an anecdote and then we suddenly leapt to a conclusion, with not a lily pad of evidence to clearly guide the thought and earn the final statement. Sad I didn't like it, or find it useful.

Liyah 🤎

An easy listen but may have been more annoying had I physically read it. As the cults got less dangerous the stories felt more and more repetitive. Also I listen to their podcast and this was basically that (some of the chapters are even podcast episodes) but slightly better researched. Overall alright I guess.

armoni mayes

4.5 stars. It was an informational, concise, and eye-opening book about the language that *cults* or *cult-like organizations use to draw people in and keep them there. While reading, I started noticing the specific language that certain gurus on tik-tok use that sounded eerily similar to what Montell described in the book. So, if you do not want to constantly be questioning your favorite YouTubers, tik-tokers, Instagram users, this book may not be for you haha. 

Favorite quotes:
"The way a person communicates can tell us a lot about who they've been associating with, who they've been influenced by. How far their allegiance goes."

"[Jim] Jones learned how to meet each follower on their linguistic level, which sent an instant signal that he understood them and their backgrounds uniquely."

"[...] because the word "cult" is so emotionally charged and up for interpretation, the label itself does not provide enough information for us to determine if a group is dangerous. We have to look more carefully. We have to be more specific."

tori 👻

A very interesting read. As someone who's always been intrigued by cults and cult followers in a country where this is not exactly discussed, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism touched upon a few topics I'd never considered before.
Given the current situation where I live involving politics, reading about the power of language and oratory was on point. I can definitely see what Montell talks about in her book in the way some people I know have grown fanatic over complicated morals.
All in all, it was an easy read for someone who's not used to non-fiction books and it made me want to dive in a bit more. It also made me want to discuss the subject matter with close friends.

Bria

Montell only talks about white people and white cults. So many things could've been brought up but weren't. She could've talked about stan culture (k-pop fans, Swifties, Barbs) and parasocial relationships. She could've talked about social justice activism and how you're "supposed to be" on one team or the other. There's not enough about the current fanaticism.

I will say the amount of research that went into this is spectacular.

elizabeth

On the surface, this book was made for me. Cults! Language! Two of my favorite subjects. (Not to mention an A+ cover design.)

Montell expertly structures Cultish, zooming in to cults and on-the-cult-spectrum groups to illustrate key conclusions about the language of such groups. Largely, it's a book of examples. And it's not that I take issue with the examples (or the conclusions Montell draws from them)--they're eclectic, sometimes surprising, and well-researched (occasionally via Montell's own interviews). I just wanted more than examples. 

The examples are proof enough that language is powerful and mind-shaping and behavior-determining, but I was missing the how. With so many available studies about language out there, I was surprised that Montell didn't point to many beyond a very brief reference to Sapir Whorf hypothesis. 

I'd recommend this book to dip your toe in the water of the power of language and to witness how power has been exerted to define beliefs, unite groups, and direct individuals. But I'd recommend plenty of outside reading about linguistic structuralism to understand what's happening under the surface.

An entertaining insight into cults and cultish behaviour in society. Didn’t go deep enough for someone who regularly studies culture, behaviour and communication.

Rabia Sitabi

Lindy

I've become disenchanted with popular nonfiction lately. I'm not sure if the books are getting worse or it's just that I'm getting older and more sophisticated. 

Cultish is fine. It's entertaining, I guess, and that has to count for something because that's one of the primary reasons people read. Cultish is like most of the other recently published popular nonfiction I've read: shallow, probably only tolerable to people who already agree with the author about almost everything, and hopelessly Twitter-inflected. 

Cultish is billed as a linguistic study of cults, but discussion of linguistics only makes up around a quarter of the material. Another quarter is the author telling stories from her personal life about how she and her friend decided to take a Scientology "personality test" for funsies one time and such. The bulk is general descriptions of cults and cult-like movements, which would be fine if it weren't obvious the author has no background in religious studies and/or anthropology and consequently makes huge, basic assumptions common to people of her (and her readers') demographic that go unexamined.

Teresa Bonifácio

I liked the book. I heard it as an audiobook. 
Although the title says language I don’t think the book it’s about the language of cults as it’s more of how cults are. The language of cults is there, but it’s not what the book is about. 

But, it’s a good book and an interesting one.

started really good and she has some great insight and interesting points but halfway through the book she just repeats the exact same points over and over again.

My toxic trait is I came for the cults and merely agreed to stay for the MLMs and fitness stuff

Margo Koss

kayla 

Gosh that was incredible. This was much broader, deeper, crazier, and more important than I thought when I heard the word fanaticism. 

Several reasons why this is a 5:

1. Very well written, super readable (or listenable as i enjoyed this as an audio in Scribd). Narasinya runut, rapih dan tertata dengan baik, dan ga ada vocab-vocab aneh yg ga bisa aku skip tanpa merusak flow dan menghalangi pemahaman. 

2. I love feeling shocked, bewildered, confused, puzzled, you name it. And lots of the discussions here are so new and illuminating to me my mouth was agape so. many. times. First of all, we'll learn about the strength of language in molding people's heads as the core of this book. You see, Cultish here is the language of the cult, like English or Spanish. It also answers some of the questions i had recently like regarding kapan sih orang fafifu wasweswos ndakik-ndakik (she said technical jargon in the professional world is used to make things more succinct while in cults it's used to obscure meaning. Jeng jeng. Makes you think whether we've been holding on to some ideologies like a cult if we use the jargons like a shield). It also kinda reveals a bit about the make-up of a human; how vulnerable we are in some aspects, how communal we can be to such an unbelievable point for some people. Sampe-sampe kelas olahraga, MLM, dan following instagram aja bisa jadi cult. Sampe-sampe cult UFO bisa membawa pengikutnya minum racun massal (buat evakuasi dari bumi biar jiwanya bisa naik UFO :(( 

3. I just love Montell more and more as I read. She's hella daring, calling out practicing businesses/groups and important people as a cult, cult leader, and whatnot. Kalo di Indo udah kena UU ITE kali. But she never came off as rude, mean, and arrogant. She never made a fool of the cult victims. She just analysed the possibilities of how people got into all sorts of cult matter-of-factly, staying sympathetic and kind throughout. It's a comforting and endearing tone that balances out the scary and heavier things in the book. My brain foamed every 3 or 4 chapters, but after some pauses i'm always eager to comeback again and again because of how lovely and fun the reading experience was, thanks to all of the above.

Something missing that i wish this book had discussed is what could possibly be inside the cult leaders' minds. Kok bisa sih mereka jadi cult leader, apa mereka beneran percaya sama apa yang mereka bawa, apa itu cuma akal-akalan demi keuntungan dst. Tapi mungkin itu ranah psikologi dan kalo gitu tepat kalo Montell ga mau ngomongin yang terlalu belok dari bidangnya, linguistik. 


Ah, seru pokoknya! Rekomen!

Marcy Pursell 

Really enjoyed this dive into cults, and how we use the word cult in our society. A fun and interesting listen to be sure!

Susan

Very interesting take on the ways fanatic and “cultish” language permeates our society and culture. I enjoyed the sociological perspective and open mindedness of Montell’s research. Very educational and fascinating.

Erin Goss

Erin Darlyn

An entertaining, somewhat surface-level read that leans more toward reader-friendly than a scholarly deep dive. Contains strong language.

Irdha C &
Cultish by Amanda Montell

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Irdha C &Cultish by Amanda Montell

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Irdha C &
Cultish by Amanda Montell