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

challenging funny hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

4.75

Such an interesting read about how language can entice us to join a cult or want to be part of a cult like group. Language can be used to manipulate, like in cults, Scientology, and Multilevel Marketing, and it can also make ya feel a part of something that can ultimately be good, like a type of workout practice. A good read to make us aware of how powerful language is and how easy it can be get sucked into harmful things because of it. Though some of it was repetitive (across each section groups used language to help people form identities and ideas that ranged from extremely harmful to probably not bad) I enjoyed the nuance of how the language worked and was used to manipulate/encourage, depending on the case/environment. Pretty fascinating.