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himpersonal 's review for:
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
by Amanda Montell
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
I accidentally joined a cult in college and managed to extricate myself and my friends from it within a couple of weeks as soon as I realized this wasn’t a regular church. Since then, I’ve been fascinated by what makes people tick, and book’s like this one is very helpful in my journey.
It was good to get a broad spectrum of cults versus just the ones deemed deviations of mainstream Christianity. By including fitness cults, social cults, New Age cults, and pyramid schemes, it makes it really obvious that we are all much more susceptible than in previous times. I would be really interested in reading an extra chapter devoted just to the MAGA cult at some point, if the writer were ever to update the book with one.
All that said, I realize people in these cults would never recognize themselves as being in a cult and would probably be very offended if someone called their hive a cult or themselves members of a cult. I mean, they are true believers and also believe they are the ones on the high roads. I would like to avoid offending them, but given most cults are actually damaging to people's lives...
I give it a five because I’ll want to read this again later, rather than because it’s as good as a five might be.
It was good to get a broad spectrum of cults versus just the ones deemed deviations of mainstream Christianity. By including fitness cults, social cults, New Age cults, and pyramid schemes, it makes it really obvious that we are all much more susceptible than in previous times. I would be really interested in reading an extra chapter devoted just to the MAGA cult at some point, if the writer were ever to update the book with one.
All that said, I realize people in these cults would never recognize themselves as being in a cult and would probably be very offended if someone called their hive a cult or themselves members of a cult. I mean, they are true believers and also believe they are the ones on the high roads. I would like to avoid offending them, but given most cults are actually damaging to people's lives...
I give it a five because I’ll want to read this again later, rather than because it’s as good as a five might be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic