Book Review: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

Official Synopsis: 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.

This book absolutely blew my mind. I listened to the audiobook and have many moments where I stopped it to think about what was just said. This book explores how cults work, but also how things that don't seem like cults use the same mentality to convince people of what they believe in. From political parties to fanbases, this book dives into how a group mentality and a sense of belonging can cause people to make rash decisions.

Montell spends time talking to people who have been in cults and left, or those who jumped from different cults to other ones when something didn't feel right. She does researching in exploring the 'why'. Why people are convinced to join, why they stay, and why sometimes it leads to tragedy. She also dives into MLMs (multi-level marketing) and how those business' target people who might be looking for a community, which causes them to end up deep into something they don't entirely understand.

This was definitely one of the best non-fiction books I've dived into this year. Montell's writing keeps you sucked in while also giving you facts and figures. She had a lot of personal experience with the things she is talking about, and mentions the signs she would notice but sometimes her friend's didn't. Montell talks about a few different 'big' cults, that were or are still active, and how they can remain so prominent in our society.

I rated this book 5 out of 5 stars, and would very much recommend it to anyone.

The audiobook was really well done as well if that is more of your vibe.

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