Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism

by Amanda Montell

The real answer all comes down to words. Delivery. From the crafty redefinition of existing words (and the invention of new ones) to powerful euphemisms, secret codes, renamings, buzzwords, chants and mantras, “speaking in tongues,” forced silence, even hashtags, language is the key means by which all degrees of cultlike influence occur.

In both positive ways and shadowy ones, “cult language” is, in fact, something we hear and are swayed by every single day.

In 1945, the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty wrote that language is human beings’ element just as “water is the element of fish.”

“Without language, there are no beliefs, ideology, or religion,” John E. Joseph, a professor of applied linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, wrote to me from Scotland. “These concepts require a language as a condition of their existence.” Without language, there are no “cults.”

Whether wicked or well-intentioned, language is a way to get members of a community on the same ideological page. To help them feel like they belong to something big.

Hassan says that groups toward the destructive end use three kinds of deception: omission of what you need to know, distortion to make whatever they’re

saying more acceptable, and outright lies.

is less about what religions are and more about what religions do, which is to provide the following four things: meaning, purpose, a sense of community, and ritual. Less and less often are seekers finding these things at church.

and (my favorite) a short-lived vegan farming cult in Massachusetts called Fruitlands, which was founded by philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott, an abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and father of Little Women author Louisa May Alcott.

A linguistic concept called the theory of performativity says that language does not simply describe or reflect who we are, it creates who we are.

The reason so many of these women died was because they had so much to gain from a movement that turned out to be a lie.

The cult of multilevel marketing is a direct product of the “cult” that is Western capitalism itself.

As much as I’d like to take full intellectual credit for my exquisitely sensitive scam nose, I know that my disdain for pyramid schemes likely correlates to the fact that I am privileged enough to have no urgent need for their promises.