The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power.
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 ra...
The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power.
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.
Amanda Montell is a writer and reporter from Baltimore with bylines in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Woman's Day, The Rumpus, Byrdie.com, and WhoWhatWear, where she is the staff features editor. As a pop linguist, Amanda's insights have been featured in Glamour, Bustle, Refinery29, Hello Giggles, and Bust Magazine. Amanda graduated from NYU with a degree in linguistics. She lives...
Amanda Montell is a writer and reporter from Baltimore with bylines in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Woman's Day, The Rumpus, Byrdie.com, and WhoWhatWear, where she is the staff features editor. As a pop linguist, Amanda's insights have been featured in Glamour, Bustle, Refinery29, Hello Giggles, and Bust Magazine. Amanda graduated from NYU with a degree in linguistics. She lives in Los Angeles. Find her on Instagram @amanda_montell.
Though the stakes and consequences of their respective affiliations differed considerably, the methods used to assert such power—to create community and solidarity, to establish an “us” and a “them,” to align collective values, to justify questionable behavior, to instill ideology and inspire fear—were uncannily, cultishly similar. And the most compelling techniques had little to do with drugs, sex, shaved heads, remote communes, drapey kaftans, or “Kool-Aid”... instead, they had everything to do with language. (查看原文)
I once heard a psychologist explain that rubbernecking results from a very real physiological response: You see an auto accident, or any disaster—or even just news of a disaster, like a headline—and your brain’s amygdala, which controls emotions, memory, and survival tactics, starts firing signals to your problem-solving frontal cortex to try to figure out whether this event is a direct danger to you. You enter fight-or-flight mode, even if you’re just sitting there. The reason millions of us binge cult documentaries or go down rabbit holes researching groups from Jonestown to QAnon is not that there’s some twisted voyeur inside us all that’s inexplicably attracted to darkness. We’ve all seen enough car crashes and read enough cult exposés; if all we wanted was a spooky fix, we’d be bored ... (查看原文)
"Modern cultish groups also feel comforting in part because they help alleviate the anxious mayhem of living in a world that presents almost too many possibilities for who to be (or at least the illus..."Modern cultish groups also feel comforting in part because they help alleviate the anxious mayhem of living in a world that presents almost too many possibilities for who to be (or at least the illusion of such). Flexibility without structure isn’t flexibility at all; it’s just chaos."(展开)
![[美国] 阿曼达·蒙特尔](https://img9.doubanio.com/view/personage/m/public/b7b61eec04d9cc20543dcf6a041c58d4.jpg)
阿曼达·蒙特尔 作者
闲鱼闲闲庐居士
未澜V
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7 有用 大大大糊糊 2022-03-14 23:14:50
好久没读到让人停不下来的非故事类书籍了。前几章对美国历史上各种有名的cult的分析，解释语言的使用在其中的重要作用，相当有意思，但总感觉离自己很远。突然切换到mlm，一下子感觉拉近了距离。跟二战宗教不平等美国梦都能关联在一起，难怪美国是直销大本营。再到之后互联网黑话、startup、健身瑜伽、conspiracy小组，一切皆可cult。可能像作者说的，在现在能不被cultish影响的方式，可能是多... 好久没读到让人停不下来的非故事类书籍了。前几章对美国历史上各种有名的cult的分析，解释语言的使用在其中的重要作用，相当有意思，但总感觉离自己很远。突然切换到mlm，一下子感觉拉近了距离。跟二战宗教不平等美国梦都能关联在一起，难怪美国是直销大本营。再到之后互联网黑话、startup、健身瑜伽、conspiracy小组，一切皆可cult。可能像作者说的，在现在能不被cultish影响的方式，可能是多加入几个cult，用diversity来冲淡单一的狂热hh (展开)
0 有用 豆咪 2022-06-25 16:56:52
买的有声书，实在是不喜欢这个声音，但又很喜欢书里的内容。
0 有用 ZZ 2023-09-05 22:36:03 美国
有很多重複的地方，感覺一篇長文可以把觀點表達很清晰了。當然，作者可能認爲需要很多的證據，這也是好的。
0 有用 王小可 2024-03-19 02:06:45 加拿大
一个半月reading slump里读过的唯一一本书。可能是潜意识里觉得我现在这个状态很容易加入cult，提前给我打起了预防针。虽然重复度确实高，但也把两点深深印进我脑海：1. 语言是一切的基础。我们通过语言理解并开展生活本活。而当我们的叙事方式受到挑战和威胁时，很少有人能忍受这种混乱感，往往会寻求权威形象的指导来重获安全感。2. 如果一种语言，让你瞬间狂热、又禁止你拥有好奇心，让你仅仅出现就能感... 一个半月reading slump里读过的唯一一本书。可能是潜意识里觉得我现在这个状态很容易加入cult，提前给我打起了预防针。虽然重复度确实高，但也把两点深深印进我脑海：1. 语言是一切的基础。我们通过语言理解并开展生活本活。而当我们的叙事方式受到挑战和威胁时，很少有人能忍受这种混乱感，往往会寻求权威形象的指导来重获安全感。2. 如果一种语言，让你瞬间狂热、又禁止你拥有好奇心，让你仅仅出现就能感觉得自己是天选之子，或让你能在道德上俯视另一类扁平化的他者，这就是值得警惕的语言。 (展开)
1 有用 FishyBrid 2022-01-08 05:17:03
"Modern cultish groups also feel comforting in part because they help alleviate the anxious mayhem of living in a world that presents almost too many possibilities for who to be (or at least the illus... "Modern cultish groups also feel comforting in part because they help alleviate the anxious mayhem of living in a world that presents almost too many possibilities for who to be (or at least the illusion of such). Flexibility without structure isn’t flexibility at all; it’s just chaos." (展开)