If you think certain influencers, stars, startup companies, social justice movements, and some brands have rabid followers that feel a bit culty – you might be right. It turns out they all use a similar method to attract and endoctrinate members. You’re not immune from these methods because you’re intelligent. The Heaven’s Gate cult and many others often consisted of extremely bright professionals and well educated people. But it’s not just classical cults anymore. These cult-like behaviors are increasingly being seen in politics, companies, social justice, and even environmental movements.

It’s worth knowing the language techniques they use so you can start raising red flags when you start seeing them. And see them you will – in every venue of your life: work, political, home, spiritual, and especially social media.

Erica Brozovsky shares some information from the book Cultish by Amanda Montell on the rhetorical techniques and language leaders use can control you. Some of the big points:

• Creating and re-enforcing in/out group dynamics. In-group people are made to feel special, elevated, and enlightened by using special names and language. Everyone else is referring to with derogatory terms to show how different/other they are. Members should shun or look down on outsiders. Anyone that leaves the group is to also be shunned. Communist Russia saw this when they would erase leaders that fell out of favor from pictures.
• Crafting and using loaded language. Words are picked and reinforced with repetition to elicit intense emotional feelings of beauty, love, fear, or hatred. The leaders can then speak those short words to elicit those strong feelings again in speeches and writings. Examples: genocide, toxic, vermin, patriot, race war, revolutionary suicide, new light, etc.
• Leaders are usually narcissists who are most easily identified as using large quantities of speaking called the Babble hypothesis. The babble hypothesis is the observation that person who speaks most are generally perceived as who is in charge.
• Thought terminating clichés. Techniques that are designed to shut down argument and dialog. They are designed to end questions or discussion. The goal is to stop critical thinking. Examples: It is what it is, that’s just negative/stinkin’ thinking, everything happens for a reason, agree to disagree, no sense makes sense, you don’t have the gift of recognition, it’s out of our hands.
• Religions are not cults. But cults can be religious. Notable differences between cult leaders and religious leaders:
  • Cult leaders use highly elaborative words like: that, which, would, and because to create complex frameworks/worlds of rules and causalities, while religious leaders don’t make these kinds of complex new moral frameworks.
  • Cult leaders use words like ‘us’ and ‘them’ to reinforce in/out group dynamics, while mainstream religious leaders conversely use ‘you’ that re-enforces inclusive and inviting dynamics.
• Use of jargon. Cults create new words for familiar things and activities to help members think they are getting special or secret information, distort or change their understanding of reality, and identify and figure out who is in and out of the group.
  • Former cult members agree they enjoyed learning the mysterious terminology as part of their indoctrination process. It made them feel part of an exclusive group and gave them a sense of superiority.
  • Social media like TikTok uses jargon and memes that serve very little functional purpose but attracts people with a sense of belonging by understanding the special terms.
  • Students from low status schools used much higher levels of unnecessary jargon than those of high-status schools who communicated much more simply and clearly.
    • Examples: intertextual, placemaking, teleology, semiology, morphogenesis, dichotomy, interstitial liminality, palimpsestic
• Use the distortion of language (loaded language, jargon, etc) to slowly distort your perception of reality until you’re willing to do anything. Even put $50,000 in a box and hand it to a stranger.
• Realize these techniques have slipped out of cults into wider society
  • Scammers use these techniques to manipulate people into doing things.
  • Startup and multi-level marketing values and culture use of jargon, loaded language, and thought terminating clichés
  • ‘Trust the plan’ when conspiracy theories don’t pan out (flat earthers, etc)
  • Politicians and political movements increasingly use many of these techniques (such as Dr Janja Lalich’s video below)
  • Corporations that create custom naming/specific jargon around their products (Lularoe, MLM’s)
  • Diet and fitness groups that use vague terms like ‘toxins’ or invent terms like WOD, metcon, assault bike, etc
  • Fitness, diet, fashion, and tiktok influencers are creating cult-like followers using these techniques
• As membership in churches, clubs, and unions decline – people turn to social media for sense of connection.

So if you see people using these techniques, you should immediately start being suspicious.

The professor that escaped a political cult

Wired interviewed Dr. Janja Lalich – a former left-wing political cult member turned sociologist. She escaped the radical Marxist-Leninist Democratic Workers Party cult.

If you want to see how easy it is to be pulled into a cult, she talks about how she finally recognized the group for what it was. She tells us that cult members are almost never mentally ill. In fact, cults want high functioning people with money/skills/connections. They attract idealistic people that are looking to change the world or do something important but fall under the manipulation of a charismatic cult leader.

Lets Talk About Sects

Sarah Steel hosts a monthly podcast featuring different cults called Let’s Talk About Sects.