Reviews

Cultos by Amanda Montell

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allisonhollingsworth's review against another edition

informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

3.5

“That’s because language doesn’t work to manipulate people into believing things they don’t want to believe; instead, it gives them license to believe ideas they’re already open to. Language—both literal and figurative, well-intentioned and ill-intentioned, politically correct and politically incorrect—reshapes a person’s reality only if they are in an ideological place where that reshaping is welcome.” // “It’s not that smart people aren’t capable of believing in cultish things; instead, says Shermer, it’s that smart people are better at ‘defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.’” // I think the topic of cults in general is an interesting thing to explore, so I wanted to pick this book up. The intent of the book was to look at how infamous cults use language in order to gain power — which is definitely a thing. I’m guilty of watching all of those cult documentaries and being like “how in the world could anyone believe this or follow this?” But there’s something to be said of greedy people who prey on the weak or people who want to feel they belong. Language, as we see in this book, factors into a lot of that. From Jonestown to Scientology and Heavens Gate and in some cases social media stars or businesses like SoulCycle we see examples of how strong language can be, whether that’s used to sell a product or salvation or whatever the case. The author used a lot of anecdotes about cults and while I appreciate the points of view from victims of actual cults, I do wish we had a bit more about actual language. And I don’t know if it was just because I listened to the audiobook but I wish the content was a bit more structured and topical for each part. For example, the titles of the sections (“Do You Wanna Be a #BossBabe?” and “Even You Can Learn to Speak in Tongues”) were funny but they didn’t really tell me what we were going to focus on. It was very interesting to learn about “thought-terminating cliches,” that was the first time I’d heard that term but we hear them all the time. Things like “Don’t worry, be happy!” or “Everything happens for a reason!” They seem to shut down any negative feeling that maybe should be expanded upon. Cults use these often. If anything, though, this book made me evaluate my surroundings a bit more in terms of the groups I’m apart of or companies that try to get me to buy things. I guess it’s just good to be aware of language used around us.

sarah3492's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

4.0

sm_readsbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

If you normally don't read nonfiction books, this is the one for you!
This book is fascinating, and even if you're not someone who is intrigued by cults, you'll be taken aback at the way language plays a role in gathering groups and influencing them.
As someone who has been captivated by the idea of cults - and became even more interested after watching dozens of Netflix cult documentaries - I knew I had to read this book.
I really enjoyed the structure of this book, how it was divided into different sections covering different segments of this broad topic. I also loved how conversational it was, and how the author used a lot of humor (and dark humor) to keep my attention.
This is one of the most interesting books I’ve read recently, and I think this is a great nonfiction book for people who don’t normally read the genre - or need a topic for a school project - my reason for picking this one up. 'Cultish' was a great book, and one I know I’ll continue thinking about.