A review by coronata
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

2.5

After thinking about this book more I've decided to knock a star off my rating, because I really don't think it accomplishes what it sets out to in a meaningful way. I'm not opposed to an author using a personal narrative to frame a nonfiction book, but because this book seems to focus only on things Montell has personal interest in, there are some pretty gaping holes in it, especially in the sections about the internet. The most obvious, to me, was that she seems to not have stepped outside her internet bubble (or any of her bubbles, really) for this book. Any discussion of cult-like groups on the internet is incomplete without any discussion of incels, especially blackpill incels. (Yes, it's niche, but it's a frighteningly cult-like and dangerous community — and if, like Montell, we are measuring a "cult" based on whether they have committed crimes... need I say more?) Her discussion of Qanon, also, lacks any mention of the roots of the conspiracies they believe; how someone could write a book where they talk about a group's conspiracies about "global elites" sacrificing children and fail to mention that those are centuries-old antisemitic canards is beyond me. Especially because the antisemitism is in many cases the point — Qanon's overlap with far-right white supremacists is not a coincidence! Those are dogwhistles and antisemitism is a huge part of their in-group language! Those are the two examples that stuck out most to me. I'm sure anyone who knows more than I do about some of the other focus areas of the book could find other holes it its analysis. Overall, her analysis of "the language of fanaticism" is very surface-level and relies too much on her own experience to be of much use to me as a reader.