Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism

This book functions as an overview of cults and let's say cult adjacent communities and how they use language to entice and then insulate followers.

Its worth three stars alone for introducing me to the concept of “thought terminating cliches” which the author did not first identify but the naming of them is new to me nonetheless. One of the things that's fascinated me about talking to people who don't share the same belief system is you is how quickly they'll throw one of these bombs out to destroy a conversation. “Well everything happens for a reason.” “No one wants to work anymore.” “Someone has it worse than you.” It kills discourse and silences the person who asks why.

But this concept has of course existed and was posited by other scholars earlier and the book is actually kind of a mess.

I'd read it if you've never read anything about a cult before. But I have because I have a small obsession, lol.