Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
Cultish: The Language of Fanatacism by Amanda Montell was originally posted on YouTube on July 12, 2021, but is available now on Rumble or Podbean.
This…was not my favorite book. I picked this one based off Rose McGowan’s book Brave where she talks about her life in a cult. Then after reading Abigal Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage where she compares the transgender movement to a cult, I wanted to learn more about cults, went to the local bookstore and BAM! There’s a new book about cults! So here we are.
The rumblings of my discontent with this book started before I even bought it, and I almost didn’t buy it because the author is described as a “modern feminist.” Which, after reading Christina Hoff Sommers, gave me pause, because modern day feminism IS a cult, in my opinion. But I did buy it, and read it, and here’s what I think of it. Because the point of this channel is to broaden my horizons. Somedays, I wonder about that goal.
On the whole, I did learn what “that language of fanaticism” is. She identifies very specifically:
1. Loaded language. Language that is specifically designed to elicit a response, big emotions, calls to action. Can be good or bad. From Irreversible Damage, the idea that “every day you’re not on testosterone you’re more likely to kill yourself.” That’s a call to action. Get on that T or you’re gonna kill yourself! Cause THAT’s not a loaded statement!?
2. Us vs Them verbiage. So, cisgender is bad, transgender is good. There’s us, the trans community, and everybody else, who is cis.
3. Thought terminators. If you don’t agree with my pronouns, it’s because you’re a transphobe. It’s specifically designed to end all conversation right then. Because you can’t disprove a negative.
4. Verbal abuse. More than one kid from last weeks book reported scads of abuse for expressing any doubt about their trans-identity.
So, these are some of the ideas expressed in the book…the loaded language, us vs them, thought terminators, and verbal abuse. However, the examples provided by author Amanda Montell were all specifically targeted against people right of center politically. Which I would be ok with because there’s certainly enough to criticize there. But she never once ever pulled an example from left of center. Despite there being equal examples to criticize there…like calling an entire section of the country deplorable if they don’t vote for you….us vs them? Verbal abuse? Loaded language? Check, check, check. But for Cultish…. basically, cults don’t exist without white men. Us vs them and divisive language is ok unless it’s being spouted by someone right of Mao Zedong.
Feminists…FIND A NEW HORSE TO BEAT. This one is so fucking dead you’ve pounded its bones to dust! White men are not the fucking problem! GROW UP ALREADY!
To no one’s surprise, the author hates capitalism. The pursuit of money is what causes cults. And only white men can succeed, with their cultic personality leading the way. Because there’s nothing cultish about Oprah’s followers. Obviously.
I mean, as a journalist, could you at least PRETEND to hide your political bias. She even cites The Daily Kos as an example against Qanon. Now, I have no problem with her using Qanon as an example, there’s a whole lot of stupid going on there, but she might have balanced it out by pulling cultish behavior and language from antifa. At least pretend you’re not a completely biased idiot. But I’m betting she’s one of those people who think Antifa isn’t even real, it’s all just a Qanon conspiracy.
And she hates Protestantism. Of course. Because using the advent of Protestantism as the source of all capitalism, hence the source of all evil, and the source of all cults…because white men. I mean she may be interested…or maybe not at all interested… to learn that without the protestant belief that everyone, man or woman, should be able to read so that they might read the word of God for themselves, she might never have learned to read. Learned that in the book American Nations. Catholics kept the ability to read to the nobility and to the church. Protestant’s shared that knowledge. So she can thank that evil cult for the fact that she was even taught to read. Let alone write a book decrying them as evil.
Somewhere in there she talks about George Orwell’s novel 1984 and how it was written as an example of World War I propaganda. I mean…even if you didn’t read 1984, and I’m going to assume she didn’t based on that, a GOOGLE SEARCH would tell you that is wildly inaccurate. It was written specifically in response to Stalinist Russia. So, well done there.
Ultimately, I did learn what I was looking for in this book. But I had to wade through a whole lot of ideology to find it. Which was really frustrating. Pursuit of truth should not have an ideology attached to it. Truth is NOT subjective. There is no such thing as my truth or your truth. The truth is the truth. Pursuit of truth is it’s own ideology.
And while I can certainly see her point on some of the examples she presented, it was so insufferably snarky and filled with virtue signaling about how bad white people are, that I kind of feel like the author needs a Child’s Guide to Adulting. I mean, half the country is white. Half the country is not a leftist ideologue. I’m talking about how 20% of the country will support the lefists no matter what they do, and 20% will support the rightist no matter what they do. That’s 60% of the country who thinks you all are fucking morons. Maybe you should try expanding your horizons and appealing to them.
Because when you attack half the country as being deplorable, you’re basically saying, no, I don’t want YOUR money. Which is why I am returning this book. She doesn’t want my money, she doesn’t get to keep it.
