“words are the medium through which belief systems are manufactured, nurtured, and reinforced, their fanaticism fundamentally could not exist without them.”
―
Amanda Montell,
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“That’s because language doesn’t work to manipulate people into believing things they don’t want to believe; instead, it gives them license to believe ideas they’re already open to. Language—both literal and figurative, well-intentioned and ill-intentioned, politically correct and politically incorrect—reshapes a person’s reality only if they are in an ideological place where that reshaping is welcome.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“It’s not that smart people aren’t capable of believing in cultish things; instead, says Shermer, it’s that smart people are better at “defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“One of the sneakiest ways these biases show up is that in our language, in our culture, maleness is seen as the default” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“One of our culture’s least helpful pieces of advice is that women need to change the way they speak to sound less “like women” (or that queer people need to sound straighter, or that people of color need to sound whiter). The way any of these folks talk isn’t inherently more or less worthy of respect. It only sounds that way because it reflects an underlying assumption about who holds more power in our culture.” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“Roses are red Money is green The American Dream Is a pyramid scheme” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“The biggest joke in religious studies is that cult + time = religion.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“There’s a reason most religions encourage prayer: Language strengthens beliefs.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“Creating special language to influence people’s behavior and beliefs is so effective in part simply because speech is the first thing we’re willing to change about ourselves . . . and also the last thing we let go.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“We're also living in a time when we find respected media outlets and public figures circulating criticism of women's voices--like that they speak with too much vocal fry, overuse the words like and literally, and apologize in excess. They brand judgments like these as pseudofeminist advice aimed at helping women talk with 'more authority' so they can be 'taken more seriously.' What they don't seem to realize is that they're actually keeping women in a constant state of self-questioning--keeping them quiet--for no objectively logical reason other than that they don't sound like middle-aged white men.” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“If you want to insult a woman, call her a prostitute. If you want to insult a man, call him a woman” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“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.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“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). I once had a therapist tell me that flexibility without structure isn’t flexibility at all; it’s just chaos. That’s how a lot of people’s lives have been feeling. For most of America’s history, there were comparatively few directions a person’s career, hobbies, place of residence, romantic relationships, diet, aesthetic—everything—could easily go in. But the twenty-first century presents folks (those of some privilege, that is) with a Cheesecake Factory–size menu of decisions to make. The sheer quantity can be paralyzing, especially in an era of radical self-creation, when there’s such pressure to craft a strong “personal brand” at the very same time that morale and basic survival feel more precarious for young people than they have in a long time. As our generational lore goes, millennials’ parents told them they could grow up to be whatever they wanted, but then that cereal aisle of endless “what ifs” and “could bes” turned out to be so crushing, all they wanted was a guru to tell them which to pick.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“*As the legendary Betty White once said, “Why do people say ‘grow some balls?’ Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“This makes sense, because in every corner of life, business and otherwise, when you can tell deep down that something is ethically wrong but are having trouble pinpointing why, language is a good place to look for evidence.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“Contentious debates aside, thought-terminating clichés also pervade our everyday conversations: Expressions like “It is what it is,” “Boys will be boys,” “Everything happens for a reason,” “It’s all God’s plan,” and certainly “Don’t think about it too hard” are all common examples.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“That means questioning the words we speak every day, as well as the contexts in which we use them—because without realizing it, something as simple as an address term or curse word might be reinforcing a power structure that we ultimately don’t agree with.” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“flexibility without structure isn’t flexibility at all; it’s just chaos.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“Totalitarian leaders can’t hope to gain or maintain power without using language to till a psychological schism between their followers and everyone else.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“That’s because language doesn’t work to manipulate people into believing things they don’t want to believe; instead, it gives them license to believe ideas they’re already open to. Language—both literal and figurative, well-intentioned and ill-intentioned, politically correct and politically incorrect—reshapes a person’s reality only if they are in an ideological place where that reshaping is welcome.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“It’s not that smart people aren’t capable of believing in cultish things; instead, says Shermer, it’s that smart people are better at “defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“One of the sneakiest ways these biases show up is that in our language, in our culture, maleness is seen as the default” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“One of our culture’s least helpful pieces of advice is that women need to change the way they speak to sound less “like women” (or that queer people need to sound straighter, or that people of color need to sound whiter). The way any of these folks talk isn’t inherently more or less worthy of respect. It only sounds that way because it reflects an underlying assumption about who holds more power in our culture.” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“Roses are red Money is green The American Dream Is a pyramid scheme” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“The biggest joke in religious studies is that cult + time = religion.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“There’s a reason most religions encourage prayer: Language strengthens beliefs.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“Creating special language to influence people’s behavior and beliefs is so effective in part simply because speech is the first thing we’re willing to change about ourselves . . . and also the last thing we let go.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“We're also living in a time when we find respected media outlets and public figures circulating criticism of women's voices--like that they speak with too much vocal fry, overuse the words like and literally, and apologize in excess. They brand judgments like these as pseudofeminist advice aimed at helping women talk with 'more authority' so they can be 'taken more seriously.' What they don't seem to realize is that they're actually keeping women in a constant state of self-questioning--keeping them quiet--for no objectively logical reason other than that they don't sound like middle-aged white men.” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“If you want to insult a woman, call her a prostitute. If you want to insult a man, call him a woman” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“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.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“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). I once had a therapist tell me that flexibility without structure isn’t flexibility at all; it’s just chaos. That’s how a lot of people’s lives have been feeling. For most of America’s history, there were comparatively few directions a person’s career, hobbies, place of residence, romantic relationships, diet, aesthetic—everything—could easily go in. But the twenty-first century presents folks (those of some privilege, that is) with a Cheesecake Factory–size menu of decisions to make. The sheer quantity can be paralyzing, especially in an era of radical self-creation, when there’s such pressure to craft a strong “personal brand” at the very same time that morale and basic survival feel more precarious for young people than they have in a long time. As our generational lore goes, millennials’ parents told them they could grow up to be whatever they wanted, but then that cereal aisle of endless “what ifs” and “could bes” turned out to be so crushing, all they wanted was a guru to tell them which to pick.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“*As the legendary Betty White once said, “Why do people say ‘grow some balls?’ Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“This makes sense, because in every corner of life, business and otherwise, when you can tell deep down that something is ethically wrong but are having trouble pinpointing why, language is a good place to look for evidence.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“Contentious debates aside, thought-terminating clichés also pervade our everyday conversations: Expressions like “It is what it is,” “Boys will be boys,” “Everything happens for a reason,” “It’s all God’s plan,” and certainly “Don’t think about it too hard” are all common examples.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“That means questioning the words we speak every day, as well as the contexts in which we use them—because without realizing it, something as simple as an address term or curse word might be reinforcing a power structure that we ultimately don’t agree with.” ― Amanda Montell, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
“flexibility without structure isn’t flexibility at all; it’s just chaos.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
“Totalitarian leaders can’t hope to gain or maintain power without using language to till a psychological schism between their followers and everyone else.” ― Amanda Montell, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
