How Cults Use Language to Control | Otherwords

[@ryanunderwood9090]

I have to keep telling myself "No one is immune to propoganda and I'm NOT the exception." I wish more folks would adopt that to get through these tactics.

[@justsomenobody889]

Great comment. I had this one really embarrassing period years ago where I kept getting fed “prepper” content on KZbin and ended up buying several 50 lb bags of rice and beans to make sure I wouldn’t starve when society inevitably disintegrated in the coming weeks 😅

[@theforce5191]

​@@justsomenobody889are you my sister? Lmao. Jk, but this sounds like how her

[@Jersonx3000]

@@theforce5191no. It’s just some nobody 889

[@theforce5191]

@@Jersonx3000 huh?

[@lauraprater2300]

The most important lesson on the subject. Kumare is a great documentary I think everyone should watch because it shows how easy it is to be misled into nothingness. Positioning in a vulnerable environment. We all have vulnerabilities.

[@joannaerhardt7294]

"Us vs. them" language is a huge red flag!😬

[@hab0272]

Yes. People are often distracted by the subject of the words but forget to be critical about the words. A rule of thumb: A clever enemy would tell you who's your enemy.

[@WanderTheNomad]

Doesn't just apply to cults, but any group of people. It might not always be a bad thing, but use of it should always set off some alarm bells in your head. The more you dislike "them", the more wary you should be of "us vs them" narratives. Again, that doesn't mean that any reason you have for disliking "them" is wrong, just that it's possible to go too far off the rails.

[@chairmanm3ow]

not if it's class warfare

[@stephenbouchelle7706]

And red hat warning.

[@KasumiRINA]

@@WanderTheNomad it depends. In case of war of genocide and conquest, or colonization in general, it IS us vs them, and anyone trying to bothside an argument or humanize the invaders should be also seen as the enemy.

[@kelleren4840]

In Mormonism I was always told "we'll have the answer to everything after this life" or "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". So glad I escaped that cult.

[@JenniferNewLife144]

Glad you escaped that !

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

mormon people are the kindest i have known.

[@TylerD288]

Keep sweet.

[@apresmoa]

@@rizkyadiyanto7922 A lot of cults are very palatable. Mormons, JW, and similar are all very welcoming.

[@archiemack6045]

I always wonder if people who think The LDS church is a cult are just ignorant or being hostile. You can literally leave whenever you want, you can attend meetings and church activities without paying a dime or contributing in any way, you can get help from the various organizations they have and even get help with meals and bills. I understand that some leaders are insensitive and may cause some religious trauma, but the organization as a whole does a huge amount of good across the world.

[@steveRBForge]

40 years ago my girlfriend joined scientology. She wanted me to join with her so I went to the Pasadena “church”. I went thru the orientation and realized that if they had to have their own dictionary then it must be a load of bullsh!t that they were pitching. Never went back. Since Scientology does not allow their members to date non Scientologist I lost my girlfriend.

[@juliadandy6019]

The fact that you can't date outside of it is in itself a major red flag. Glad you doged that one, hope your ex is doing OK

[@WDC_OSA]

Scientology is such a wild ride. These days there are so many former members, and in some cases literal escapees, sharing their stories in books and documentaries and KZbin livestreams. You didn't just dodge a bullet. You dodged a whole firing squad.

[@shelbylynn9]

My sister lost her long term boyfriend the same way 10 years ago. He devoted his entire life to them, and wound up moving to California to be at one of their bigger locations. Crazy stuff.

[@allthe1]

She lost you, man. Best decision ever

[@ecurewitz]

Sounds like you were better off without her

[@Beryllahawk]

Of all the things in this, the final line is THE most important. LISTEN TO PEOPLE OUTSIDE YOUR USUAL CIRCLES ONCE IN A WHILE. Reality-check, especially if you're feeling threatened. Sadly the people who need to hear this the most will be the ones refusing to listen :(

[@mattropolis99]

I got off 90% of social media 3 years ago and it was the best decision in my life.

[@rockoutconsiderably]

I totally agree. I work in an academic setting doing fundraising where most of the people working there including me subscribe to a political ideology. I purposefully subscribe to a fundraising newsletter from a different political ideology to hear ideas that I won't get in my immediate working environment.

[@almasaurus]

no one who actually needs to hear it will... algorithm😈

[@dependent-wafer-177]

Like the political extremes, far right and the left, both sides think their very existence is under threat. Red flag.

[@hameley12]

Same here 🙋‍♀️ I deleted all social media years ago. All I have is KZbin but I set up a time limit on how long to watch. That way I have time for socialising, reading, hobbies and work. Not long ago my passer-by friend asked me if I knew the person in front of me, sitting at the airport. No, I did not. She asked me why was I speaking to him. It seemed like we knew each other and agreeing, disagreeing. I told her "Well, sometimes you need to leave your baby bubble and grow a bigger one. By leaving our comfort zone, thinking and asking people reasonable questions can get you the right answers. It can be economics, technology, comic books, travel, languages, rainwater harvesting or anything, really" She looked confused and began asking me questions. She was finally becoming independent on thought process. ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ 🧠

[@BoldFollower]

If I learned anything about escaping a cult it is.. if ANYONE claims you are in a cult... take their words seriously. People tried to get me out but I discredited all their attempts and ignored every red flag.

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

you are still in a cult.

[@TylerD288]

@@rizkyadiyanto7922 am I?!?

[@Jane-Doe.1126]

@@rizkyadiyanto7922 wut you talkin' 'bout Willis?

[@seekervaltriz9447]

In the end it's kind of difficult to take the words of religous fanatcis that I would be in a cult because I discredit theirs by my mere existence as "serious".

[@themissingsock2437]

100%, and they always deny it, and I'm like, "well, whatever, have fun not exploring your dreams b/c some person told you not to for some reason or another that you still don't sit quite right with."

[@EayuProuxm]

6:50 Scientology having a 300 page dictionary you're forced to study is definitely a thought killing exercise.

[@ecurewitz]

That’s a big red flag right there

[@ravnjokr]

worked for a guy who offered us to take a communication and management course for training. The course almost reinvented the dictionary. Also had things like "you hard sell because you care." A couple months later, someone finally told me that the course was actually offered by scientology... Funny thing is, through out their training material and what not, there were no mention of the word "scientology". It was only when I googled their founder did I realize it was L Ron Habbard, founder of scientology ^_^||| I bailed after that.

[@pretzelbomb6105]

@@ravnjokr What better guy to write a course on good communication and management skills than the one who got lost and shelled Mexico?

[@oscaranderson5719]

@@pretzelbomb6105”he has such a way with words…”

[@WanderTheNomad]

I feel like "thought-replacement exercise" would be more apt.

[@CheeseCircus]

The use of jargon is widespread in corporate team building and business seminars.

[@julietfischer5056]

And advertising.

[@purcascade]

"We're a family here."

[@gastonmarian7261]

Capitalism is a death cult, selling the Earth itself out from underneath the feet of our children, because war and the exploitation of nature is profitable

[@keyboardtek]

And motivational books like Zig Ziglar.

[@curple3]

If you're told that place you're applying for "is like a family" during interviews, gtfo my guy

[@Beedji]

Reminds me of the guy who said "I know words. I have the best words."

[@janicehopkins1182]

Hmmm … and the best word is stupid.

[@kath1017]

Right

[@StringerNews1]

bing bing bong bong

[@il70-un3pb]

Who is he?

[@meikala2114]

almost as good as his good genes

[@armelior4610]

The "quantity is key" has been known from politicians for long time : they're very good at answering a question in a 15 minutes response which didn't mean anything AND didn't answer the question in any way. By that time, even the inquirer has forgotten what that was all about

[@mattropolis99]

This is why I quit watching debates

[@dicksdrugsanddebutantes9305]

I thought I was dumb for not being able to find meaning it. I also blamed my adhd for my short attention span. I think both of these are partially true, but now that you mention it it makes sense. I never thought that it was intentional, and that most people feel that way when listening to politicians.

[@Jane-Doe.1126]

True!!! Kamala Harris is a prime example with her word salad.

[@purplestuff]

​@@Jane-Doe.1126 trump's much worse.

[@ashchuu]

I'm so glad MLMs were brought up because man, do they go all-in on the culty behaviour

[@jenniferhiemstra5228]

Oh man...when it hit me those damn things are indeed cults, it really made other kinds of cult behavior easier to see. And it astounds me that people still get involved with MLMs when it's an open secret what they really are. I don't want to say I'm immune to falling for this kind of crap, but damn...

[@dimamatat5548]

Shining Path was dangerous, indeed.

[@grantdillon3420]

And their even more cultish cousin, large group awareness trainings.

[@eryalmario5299]

Wdym by culty? It is a cult

[@NBlack-zh4hx]

😂😂facts!

[@LeCrenn]

Thank you for the term “thought terminating cliché.” I have always bristled at those catchy phrases but didn’t know there was a term for them.

[@Shootskas]

And they occur all the time.

[@biffyqueen]

I knew there was something about "It is what it is" that bugged me.

[@WilliamDancin]

Cults use loaded language Cults use thought-terminating cliches Cults have a strict "us" vs "them" mentality, with special jargon to promote a feeling of exclusivity

[@user95395]

Sounds legit like every leader, not just cult leaders. Pizza Hut assistant managers act like this.

[@videogamecin]

Do we not also make an "us vs. them" rhetoric right now when talking about our idea of the free and civilized society (ourselves?) vs. cults and brainwashed masses? Dichotomy isn't inherently bad, context matters Also a lot of people with a cultist/dogmatic mindset don't realize or admit having a cultist/dogmatic mindset, but look down upon the stupider one

[@hippykiller2775]

Once you realize CNN and MSNBC and Fox do the same thing but on a much larger scale you will really understand how bad it is.

[@morganthem]

I didn't learn what a thought-terminating cliche was until very recently, like the last few years. It is crucial to indoctrination language because it denies a person's natural skepticism and often it's paired with the veiled threat of ostricization or even persecution.

[@scottwhitlock8559]

I find it a little creepy that while she gives examples of scientology, q-anon, and corporate buzzwords (which are great examples) she pointedly avoids mentioning anything associated with far-left politics. It used to be that media personalities were terrified of criticizing scientology in public because they were so litigious. Try doing a KZbin search for What a Democratic Socialist Convention is Like, and see if it doesn't check all the boxes for a cult. All it's missing is the charismatic male leader.

[@markginther6088]

"Babble hypothesis" That somewhat explains a certain presidential candidate's appeal. The military also uses a lot of jargon.

[@aiai-j7i]

and corporations!

[@Jane-Doe.1126]

Kamala Harris word salad. There I said it for you.

[@bookerbosq7850]

⁠ok there, botsky

[@timmiller661]

A lot of military jargon makes sense in that you're in a world where the technology, organizational structure, and need for conformity is different than the civilian world. It follows that language will be different, too. It's only really disturbing when the language is used to mask horror - "wet work," "soft target," "friendly fire," "collateral damage."

[@macdonald2k]

@@Jane-Doe.1126 Right. Who should we follow, a guy that makes his platform's goals clear, or someone that obfuscates it?

[@renewalofmind2266]

I grew up in a cult. The "us vs them" analysis is spot on.

[@tatafromthehood5573]

Was it jw? Just asking bcs I'm curious

[@inajosmood]

Yeah, kind of off topic, but not fully. That's how I first got suspicious of this little known person Jordan Peterson. He was always attacking the left and cultural neo marxists at that time, but on the other side of his mouth talking about how bad tribalism is. That made me more curious about the other subjects he talked about at that time, to only quickly discover how little he knows and/or how bad and self serving his intentions are.

[@renewalofmind2266]

@@tatafromthehood5573 Upci. I was in a cult that was a faction of a bigger cult

[@deanoswell3302]

Been there....got out. Phhewww.. any dialog that doesnt assent to God's Spirit Directed Organisation....is taboo...and then there are the xhanges (new light)...sadly it vacilate.s​@tatafromthehood5573

[@RictaScale.Official]

"If you don't support gay marriage, you are a homophobic bigot!" The alphabet cult do it well to gain societal ground.

[@sophiaec2607]

wow the thought terminating cliche thing is so interesting! I immediately thought of how often people are shut down when pointing out or trying to address injustice with "life isn't fair" (so we should not even bother addressing it)

[@mattropolis99]

Life isn't fair is also a valid observation - but only the user makes it an end of the discussion or not. I can both believe life isn't fair and almost certainly can never be totally fair, but that's no reason for me not to try to fix the wrongs I can. It's basically the serenity prayer.

[@user95395]

we all use these phrases. Sometimes you need to shut down the conversation. It doesn't always help to talk about injustice 24/7. But you're also right

[@chickensalad3535]

Great point. This has bothered me for most of my life.

[@practicaliching2311]

All of the people whining about social injustice believe in false narratives that when questioned, they start name calling. If you pop their false narrative, they spew out their irrational hatred at you. They are the cult.

[@hab0272]

@@sophiaec2607 it would be sad if people use this as an excuse or justification for unfairness. Life can be unfair but life can also be fair.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Wow. A PBS production outright calling Scientology a cult. I predict a new round of 'defund PBS' nonsense by a certain group of egotistical actors...

[@AndrewFanton]

Exactly what I was thinking. Scientologists have a reputation of suing or otherwise harassing anyone who openly criticizes them.

[@stananderson4524]

That is because it is a very wealthy corporation.

[@ryanreedgibson]

@@stananderson4524 It's because they know their cult is a joke and have to protect it. The wealth is how they harass, not why they harass.

[@Peter_Scheen]

Scientology is forbidden in Germany.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

@@Peter_Scheen Germany learned from its mistakes, and is smart on this one!

[@vladalterax9840]

I have to point to the fact that the sentence "let's agree to disagree" is very useful for dealing with people who won't stop yammering until you either agree with them or stop answering. I usually use it in the form "Yes, we seem to have different opinions on that; moving on..."

[@sunla]

I think these terms, even "it is what it is" have a good use. I think it can be used to stop people from 'beating a dead horse' when they are talking in circles or questioning things that just have no answer, and no alternative. It can be a useful phrase for conversing with people who have strong personalities, a lot to say, and there are no new points to be made. They definitely can be used to evade being questioned, though. And I feel like if you use those phrases in that way, you have to know it feels wrong... Right?

[@merlapittman5034]

Out of all these cults, I think the one that boggles my mind the most is scientology. How a "religion" created by a second-rate science fiction author caught on is just beyond belief to me

[@KasumiRINA]

Oh that's the easiest one to explain, he wrote a pretty popular self-help book and there are people who genuinely swear they got more confident and put their life in order with help of Dianetics... SO when his non-fiction took off much better than his books about alien invasions, he doubled down on that to the point of creating a cult. His and later leaders experience and connections in media world helped them promote Scientology and get popular ambassadors. Out of ALL cult stories, this one is the least strange one, like yeah a popular writer with connections to pop culture, no wonder they got off!

[@merlapittman5034]

@KasumiRINA I had forgotten all about Dianetics, I suppose because I always thought it was nonsense, and any improvement anyone saw was the placebo effect. Thanks for reminding me - you're right. It makes a lot more sense now that people could be taken in by those charlatans

[@Hallahanify]

The Mormon church was created by a convicted con man who took over 30 wives, some as young as 14. It has millions of members.

[@zdarlighter]

​@@KasumiRINA thanks for the explanation! Do you have any baffling examples of cult creations?

[@DavidRamirez-vc8dr]

Same as every other religion 🤷🏻‍♂️ just the modern version

[@Vinvininhk]

This is how you build a cult with language 1. Speak a lot to assert leadership 2:00 2. Use loaded language to push feelings 3:15 3. Use thought ending cliches to suppress critical thinking 4:00 4. Encourage Us vs Them mentality 5:00 5. Creat a lot of jargons to promote the sense of privilege for "secret knowledge" and again Us vs Them mentality 6:35 6. Alter the target's world view incrementally Am I missing anything?

[@peraltarockets]

7. Buy a newspaper, like the Moonies did 8. Get contracts to develop social policies on family with the G.W. Bush administration, like the Moonies did

[@WilliamDancin]

5. "Jargon" This is a great summary, thank you!

[@hab0272]

How to create a cult in a nutshell!

[@armelior4610]

that's for the language part, but charisma is mostly non-verbal I think

[@Moho_braccatus_]

Don't get any ideas!

[@baconbacon_123]

The final message is so important. I've seen members of my family completely lost because they don't have any variety in the ideas they consume. If you listen to one group's ideas for long enough, you will lose your sense of reality. Over time you will become more and more agreeable to their ideas.

[@teehee4096]

In Islamic fundamentalism, I was always taught "الله علم" ("God knows"). This cliché would always be used when I found a contradiction that the imam couldn't answer.

[@usainengland]

If God knows, does that mean you do not need to know? Thanks for your comment. I am always interested in learning about the beliefs of non Christians.

[@CorwinFound]

That's called a "thought terminating cliché." Almost every ideology has them and even personally we use them. When something unpleasant happens, we say, "It is what it is," or "C'est la vie." It isn't inherently bad. We can't analyze and dissect everything in our lives. We'd be paralyzed. But people or institutions with bad intensions or desire for control absolutely use these for nefarious purposes. Just knowing that it is a tactic used goes a long way to inoculating a person against them.

[@thekaxmax]

"God may know, but sucks at communication"

[@chokobirdwatsmyname]

@@usainengland read your bible. Christianity is just as bad and has just as much of a distaste for thinking

[@wmdkitty]

Growing up Catholic, I got, "It's a Mystery." With the capital M.

[@commmander]

I feel like I gained insight into the thought process of certain relatives, thank you.

[@WikipediaLover94]

Is the babble hypothesis why every time a politician or CEO or whatever goes on a "listening tour" it almost always utterly fails?

[@jeremyhofmann7034]

“Witch hunt, perfect call, woke, radical left, nasty woman..” are additional examples

[@heatherwillis5505]

"A woman is anyone who identifies as a woman" "Would you rather have a dead son or a trans daughter?" "No uterus, no choice." It goes both ways, you blind dork wads

[@mildredhuertas9573]

This is giving me flashbacks to a cult I was in when my mom dragged me into it when I was 15. They used the verb “to evolve” or the word “evolution” to refer to being a better person or changing for the greater good. It makes my skin crawl to remember that.

[@thefirm4606]

The greater good is on par with that 😊

[@mildredhuertas9573]

@@thefirm4606 no it’s not. Not when an organization that tries to brainwash taints the word and uses it to harm other people. I bet you didn’t catch the part where I said it makes my skin crawl because it is wrong and it’s traumatic. So don’t tell me you think it’s for the greater good because it’s not and it just proofs you are as brainless as a cult member.

[@hedgehog3180]

Literally stole their vocab from Pokemon.

[@majarini]

Hmm. Maybe we were in the same cult.

[@charlotteillustration5778]

English male boarding schools have used the terminology of exclusivity for hundreds of years, having a ‘special’ vocabulary for ordinary words that only those who attend/have attended know, thus enhancing their sense of privilege.

[@hedgehog3180]

That's really more of a sociolect, which serves the function you describe but it develops based on social class and has the express purpose of delineating class and subculture. Most people are actually skilled in multiple sociolects and will switch between them fluently depending on the situation.

[@tonyalder8037]

It is frightening how much more of this language has inundated politics

[@RocketJo86]

What you said about jargon is actually a fact I teach my students early on. If you want to use jargon and complicated sentences, than you're basically giving away that you don't know what you're talking about. Or feel insecure. I also deconstruct their answers that way. I hope this teaches them to do the same - and don't automatically trust unnecessary wordy people. Like me 😂

[@RichWoods23]

Jargon is a shorthand that is entirely reasonable for specialists to use when talking between each other about their specialism, but it's counterproductive to use when explaining something to a non-specialist. I learned this the hard way decades ago when people would ask me about what I was doing to fix their computer problem. I realised that while some really were curious about how the things worked, most were just looking to chat rather than to stand around in silence. I might have preferred to concentrate on the job at hand, but asking them about, say, a a family photo on their desk was just as good a way to get them to think well of me as was fixing their computer quickly -- and it saved me the hassle of giving a running commentary on my job progress.

[@RocketJo86]

@@RichWoods23 That's definitely true. But even then it can slowly creep into your everyday speech, making you incomprehensible to people outside your profession, creating some kind of bubble. In Germany government officials and doctors are best known for this. They are so used to talk to each other within their job that it can become difficult for them to hold a conversation with outsiders. Mostly because they never learned how to scale down their speech. I had a lecturer in university who taught us to keep jargon to a minimum and am also the first one in the family to study, so I had to constantly explain what my words meant. I think this brought me to a good balance between jargon and everyday speech. But as a teacher I see an increasing trend in children being taught jargon for no reason other than them learning fancy words they don't quite understand. Science and especially business should not be about learning vocab alone. Especially if nobody really teaches them the concepts that go along with it. Or worse, teach the concepts out of context, so the students heard the words, think they understand them but are still in lack of knowledge about them.

[@RichWoods23]

@@RocketJo86 I'll happily agree that business suffers terribly from that. I was around for the rise of management-speak in the 1990s and I was left with the distinct impression that there was a certain type of manager who was using and inventing jargon entirely due to a jealousy of the technical professions. They wanted people to hold the management profession in the same regard as medicine, law and computer science, much in the same vein as the economists who created a Nobel-sort-of Prize for themselves. One PA I worked with back then would constantly apologise when she sent me documents from her boss for publication. She always spoke impeccable English, with a cut-glass Oxford accent, and was visibly embarrassed at the atrocious abuses of language that she had to type up for him and wasn't allowed to correct.

[@lisamoag6548]

Knowledgeable people speak swiftly,succinctly and surely. Matter of fact tone and the listener (s) realize, yes that is true ,like my sister in the garden, she knows and reminds me. You have to remember… each other. Don’t forget to remember, children! Grana Rose

[@blaisemacpherson7637]

Yes! I took an advanced hydrology class in school and the book was written in plain English and we all talked to be understood. Then I took organization theory course and the book was all ten syllable words and compound sentences. Basically, the organization theory people clearly felt insecure if the academic bonafide of their profession and were compensating with garbage jargan.

[@ghabrielmelooliveira1426]

This channel is gold, Dr. Brozovskhy is a gem stone of humanity, gotta preserve this content!

[@aubrey6538]

After leaving the Mormon church, I realized how relevant their monotone and endless talking was in keeping control over its members. They have something called general conference by annually and it’s two days long and they sure talk a lot but don’t seem to save very much. Thanks for this video.

[@Jane-Doe.1126]

That's christianity in a nutshell. Even the bible is like that.

[@MySmileStillStaysOn]

Bi annually?

[@archiemack6045]

The Methodist church also has a general conference. Are they a cult? Listening with actual intent having prayed for understanding makes a huge difference. And you may have noticed that you were able to leave with zero repercussions and you were never told to not talk to people not of our faith or told what you could and couldn't ask. Literally every class on Sundays is an open discussion. It is one of the few churches where everyone gets a regular chance to speak at the pulpit if they so choose. Weird cult that values each individual's contribution. Maybe you had a bad experience or lost your faith, but that doesn't mean it was a cult.

[@MySmileStillStaysOn]

@@archiemack6045 you obviously don't know that much about the Mormon church

[@earhornjones]

Thanks for correctly identifying Jim Jones' drink of choice as "Flavor Aid"! Details matter!

[@julietfischer5056]

Kool-Aid is better known, which is why people use it.

[@nope19568]

​@@julietfischer5056i think they mix up jonestown and heavens gate, heavens gate did use actual koolaid

[@julietfischer5056]

@@nope19568- I think 'Kool-Aid was used in the phrase before then. A couple of decades separate the two tragedies.

[@davidmiller9220]

I have been that weirdo at parties, correcting everyone about the flavoraid. I also notice her correct usage. Liguistic phds, unite!

[@cottontaelle]

@@nope19568 heaven's gate used pudding or applesauce

[@T.Florenz]

I will say, studying the warning signs and tools of cults helped me to get free of fundamentalist, Evangelical Christianity. I would absolutely not let organized religion off the hook in their language, as I have experienced no greater "us vs them" mentality than in religion.

[@Moho_braccatus_]

Oh, yeah, some organized religions can definitely lean into some cultish tactics. I'm an ex-Catholic, and right now the Holy See is creating an "Us & Them" type of narrative. Now I wonder if they've always done this.

[@BobSacamano666]

Organized religions are cults...

[@Cool-Vest]

As someone who was never in a religion, I can see that from a mile away.

[@astrothad]

This is especially true if the religion requires you to "convert non-believers". There are religions that don't act predatory and tend to have a more complete view of what it is to be human. I'm not about to subscribe to any of them, but they shouldn't all be painted with the same broad brush.

[@greensteve9307]

Yeah, 99% of religions give the rest a bad name.

[@ABCXYZ-vg9gh]

I was a member of Hare Krishna cult for 9 years, and this video is absolutely correct. I was lucky I got out of that cult .

[@thelocalstumbler]

Time to start a cult for Dr. Brozovsky of Otherwords

[@aayanahmedkhan7775]

Will there be snacks?

[@pretendtobenormal8064]

I'm in. Do I gotta sign something?

[@davea6314]

The rule of the cult should be that anyone who offends the ghost of Noah Webster by inserting a letter "u" in the words color, harbor, flavor, favor, honor, and neighbor will suffer death by listening to Weird Al's Word Crimes musical parody continuously until death. 🤪 Limeys, Aussies, Kiwis, and Canucks beware. 🤪 -Dave the Bloody Yank

[@davea6314]

The rule of the cult should be that anyone who offends the ghost of Noah Webster by inserting a letter "u" in the words color, harbor, flavor, favor, honor, and neighbor will suffer death by listening to Weird Al's Word Crimes musical parody continuously until death. 🤪 Limeys, Aussies, Kiwis, and Canucks beware. 🤪 -Dave the Yank

[@211Gus]

Will there be Kool-Aid?

[@alexanderbaca7352]

Mainly cult leaders attempt to inspire fight or flight in their followers to coerce them by threat of some fear, which is elaborated on by use of the language of conflict, which is used to pass judgement and vilify some thing to allow for easier manipulation.

[@hameley12]

I saw this first hand when my community helped a group of twenty mothers asking for help. We rescued well over 30 women and children, never vaccinated, never showered, did not understand how the native English language worked or how to form full sentences like the men within the cult. My heart was crying, I was crying. They are doing much better today. And there's a mention of this in the TV show Numb3rs. Everytime it airs on CBS I can't watch it. All those people refusing medical treatment or any form of aid. It makes me angry and sad. Edit: After all this time, you can still see fear in the mother's eyes. They hope that their daughters and few sons are able to live in a freer, more caring world. Something they didn't have growing up.

[@NecoMimi43]

I grew in small town Mormon in utah. Here are commons ones. "Outside influence' "Satan's temptations" "Protection of the spirit" "Strength in the youth" "Falling away" "Lost or Looking" "Strength through prayer" "Core of the family" "Power of the preisthood"(male superpower) "Mothers example/obedience"

[@apresmoa]

This is also any sort of religious belief with their own book (including the different Abrahamic religions). Also, the part in the video that said religions tend to use "you" while cults tend to use "us/them"- religions use us/them all the time. It separates and creates a division between us/believers and them/unbelievers. But the "you" language works too because it makes people feel even more significant.

[@Ziorac]

Using a lot of jargon to seem smarter is very common. You see it when people talk to police or justice. You get sentences like 'I witnessed the individual perform the action' instead of 'I saw them do it.' I laugh every time I witness this action. ;)

[@rosiefay7283]

Are you quoting a witness's words or a police officer's words?

[@Ziorac]

@@rosiefay7283 Haha, I've seen both of those do it. And their obvious pretending is funny every time.

[@JoeJaJoeJoe]

Police speak also makes heavy use of passive voice to deflect responsibility. You get odd sentences such as 'the suspect was injured in an officer involved shooting' instead of 'officers shot and injured the suspect'

[@wimleybuckets]

Every time I see 'individual' used this way, my brain automatically goes to _Idiocracy_ and the constant use of "particular individual."

[@julietfischer5056]

They watch cop shows and hear the things said by law enforcement personnel and lawyers, and think that's how they should say things.

[@XxTheSoundOfRainxX]

part of my interest in linguistics came from growing up in a high control religion. thank you for bringing awareness to this!

[@dependent-wafer-177]

When you point out the stupidity in religion, the believer tells you, you need the Holy Spirit to understand.

[@E4439Qv5]

Mhm. And the few times I can be sure that ol' HS *_has_* talked to me, it's been in preparation to get me to speak Truth to Power to these silly guys.

[@LDogSmiles]

It’s sad that a lot of people get deceived because they want to be a part of a group that makes them feel superior to others. arrogance is their own undoing

[@patrickthebutcher]

Only about 700 people voluntarily drank the Kool-Aid, the other 200 were forced to at gunpoint by his zealot guards

[@isabelrodriguezsjolund9701]

Yeah that's why they mentioned "coerced"

[@patrickthebutcher]

@@isabelrodriguezsjolund9701 coerced is very very different from forced. Google it... I'll wait.

[@runawayuniverse]

Those 700 didn't drink the Kool-Aid, because it was Flavor-Aid.

[@patrickthebutcher]

@@runawayuniverse okay I'm going to need you to grab your towel and get out of the gene pool

[@patrickthebutcher]

@@isabelrodriguezsjolund9701 coerced and forced are very very very different things...

[@eIicit]

It’s borderline not even fair when someone not only is aware of these tricks, but knows how to implement them. Not a single one of us is immune to all of it. Even groups fully aware of this will end up using tricks like this internally within their group.

[@youremakingprogress144]

To the Babble Hypothesis: do people choose leaders because they talk a lot, or do they *allow* people to talk a lot because they seem competent and charismatic and therefore worth following?

[@quiestinliteris]

I also have to wonder about that. I'm assuming the recent study likely addresses that, and I'll be hunting it up. But also, anecdotally, I find that people who talk a lot do so because the rest of the party allows or even encourages it, but the people who talk MOST frequently manage that by interrupting and talking over others. At the same time, those usually aren't people I would CHOOSE for leadership. Also wonder how that question was phrased. I'd give very different answers to "Who do you think would make the best leader for this group?" and "Who do you think WAS the leader of this group?" If the latter, then yeah, I might describe the loudmouth as the leader, albeit self-appointed. That twenty-second summary raised more questions than it answered for me. XD

[@jmhorange]

I was thinking a similar thing. Like if you don't have time to talk, well people can't tell how great a leader you are by your ideas. So like maybe the person who talks the most, their ideas on average aren't that good, but they are putting them out there as opposed to other people so probably more likely to be seen as a leader. It's hard to know the exact reason why they chose length of talking as the deciding factor, but that's what makes science fun.

[@youremakingprogress144]

@@quiestinliteris You make a lot of good points here!

[@maxredjasper55]

I would have to say the later. When I was younger and in school, I was almost always interrupted. Even when I knew the answer or had a good strategy, I was ran over by some other dude. TBF, I'm one person and shorter than average, but intelligence and calm rarely does well in a team exercise.

[@keyboardtek]

I used to own an electronics repair shop. When someone would come in, I would just give them and estimated time of completion. But my tech always had to come out and start talking electronics terms and tech babble to impress the customer how smart he was. He would hijack my conversation with the customer and stand there mouthing off every electronics term he could think of, probably a bit of elitism was involved.

[@ActiveAdvocate1]

Oh, you know about Teal Swan? I was, for a few months, in with the cult who helped her get her start: Spirit Science. This was more than ten years ago, my dad had cancer, I thought he was going to die, and I was looking for easier, comforting answers. I don't remember exactly HOW I found Spirit Science, but I have to hand it to that kid: he's a spectacular animator. It's one of those New Age "give me your money" cults. He was also really, REALLY good in his hay-day at, ahem, "marketing," shall we say. He's super charismatic, but he's not the handsomest guy on the block, so he went down to Australia and made friends with a sex god who supported him financially--I think--for a while. Guy had an oceanside property, so I'm ASSUMING he had money. Thing was, the Aussie was smart enough to work his way out, and he more or less dropped off the face of the Internet. Smart move. I do hope he's happy: he was actually very nice to me. And there were others besides Teal and Tyler as well, but, uh, sexual assault allegations don't go wonderfully well with maintaining a cult, Jordan. Jordan: he's the guy who runs Spirit Science. Not to mention a real-life astrophysicist named Marty getting his intellectual teeth into the guy and ripping his arguments to bits. Marty was the reason why I finally woke up and went, "Oh, wait, this is BS." Thankfully, I never gave Jordan a CENT of my money.

[@julietfischer5056]

This the guy with the blue character? Sir Sic takes jabs at him, also.

[@Cardboardruna]

I didn't realize TS was cult related. I saw one of her shorts and she makes the hair on my neck stand up.

[@ActiveAdvocate1]

@@julietfischer5056 , yep. Jordan Duchnycz. He lost his entire original team over being an ass, not to mention...I don't want to SAY "a sexual opportunist," because he could honest-to-Gods be bisexual, but he slept with a girl after she said no, which IS sexual opportunism, and he slept with a guy--not the Aussie hottie, another one--so he could get his hands in his wallet. The guy told me about it personally. And I'm just like, "Damn, dude, you're brave. I'm happy he didn't run you for every penny." The real shame of it is, HOLY CRAP can Jordan animate. He could make a pretty penny, and do so honestly, if he just used his creativity for good things, and not to be a scam artist.

[@AnnaRueden]

Cults (and culty religions) are experts at finding people who are vulnerable and pulling them in. Some of them go as far as to haunt obituaries and funerals for potential converts. Finding them when you were in that kind of mental space wasn't a coincidence.

[@mytruecrimelibrary]

Love that you called out Scientology and Qanon fot being cults 👍

[@Jane-Doe.1126]

Christianity as a whole is a CULT don't forget that.

[@davedee6745]

Scientology: At best, it's a business and at worst, it's a cult.

[@wimleybuckets]

Kifflom!

[@Langwidere903]

It’s so much worse than people realize-there’s horrific systemic child abuse because they don’t believe in children, they’ve forced sea org members to abort wanted pregnancies, and Shelly Miscavige is STILL missing.

[@JoeJaJoeJoe]

Google "Gold Base"

[@wmdkitty]

It's both!

[@NovaSaber]

It's a MLM. (And a cult...but they literally only started calling themselves a religion to get the tax exemption.) MLMs and cults in general tend to function similarly anyway, but Scientology is the clearest example of a large group that's actually in both categories.

[@RicardoPetinga]

This is on par with why some people get caught up in the rambling word salads of J. Peterson, the annoyingly fast-paced gish-galloping nonsense spewing of B. Shapiro (his initials are very on point), the incessant shouting and delirious foaming at the mouth of Alex Jones and so many others.

[@julietfischer5056]

Jorps and B-Shaps. Still on the hunt for the clitoris.

[@JoeJaJoeJoe]

Ben "my wife doesn't get wet" Shapiro

[@mckernan603]

Also on par with radical liberal ideological media like Vaish and Minority Report. It’s all a waste of time for depressed people.

[@RicardoPetinga]

@@mckernan603 I agree with what you say about Vaush but not that he's radical since he's still very much an imperialist hiding behind faux progressivism. A liberal, basically, sure. Can't stand him and his sophistry. The Majority Report could be better, sure, but at least is made by people who actually know what they're talking about, and not really comparable to this.

[@thekaxmax]

​@mckernan603 they're radical? Really?

[@arsaeterna4285]

it's taken me a lifetime to understand these behaviors I grew up in cults and both my mom and her mom were manipulative matriarchs. there are still members of my family, including older members, who are dazzled and fully convinced by this ruse. I think they feel invested and fear being proven wrong or something

[@Lyrielonwind]

Narcissists....

[@anthonydaniel9534]

I don't want to read too much into this, but I feel like I know what person might have inspired this episode. Well done, Doctor.

[@gastonmarian7261]

"RIP Noam Chomsky, you wrote books about questioning the media and 1 unsourced tweet says you are dead X"

[@thebriellejar]

LOVE that you used the correct drink they used flavoraid instead of what most ppl think it was thanks to the infamous "drinking the kool aid" line idk why but the fact it's flavor aid instead of kool aid is my roman empire

[@iranjohn]

This misses one of the most important primers: You tear the person down and rebuild them in a way that makes them more amiable to linguistic manipulation. As much as I dislike the police, I don’t think most of them are aware of what they’re doing. This brings us to another thing that was left out: the way memory works. Every time a memory is recalled, it is subject to manipulation. If a police officer keeps interjecting while a person is recalling, those interjections can become a part of the memory during reconsolidation. It can lead to a false confession. To the police officer, it will seem like a breakthrough achieved through hard and diligent work. However, the memory has been manipulated; most interviewers are unlikely to know this.

[@hameley12]

I wonder if you are following The Behavioural Arts or Martin Decoder. One of them breaks down how memory can be manipulated and harmed by the person interrogating. If not, I definitely recommend them. I've seen other groups use both language and drugs to numb the mind. And insert false information in order to prove that sadly humans can be hacked just like computers. I covered my eyes through the whole process. It gets too much. Their memories were returned to its original temple afterwards. This is important to know especially with how people have been experimenting with strong hallucinogens for decades. And still do and in some cases are left for hours to consume it, and are overdosed. It is not a tin foil type of thinking anymore. It's a fact.

[@JamesPetts]

"Thought terminating cliches" is a good example of scrutiny suppression.

[@pipe2devnull]

This should be taught early in school.

[@Cplblue]

It already is.

[@squidwardwithoutaclue]

No one would pay attention anyway

[@brandonmroe265]

Certain subsets of the parental wing would be very invested in their kid NOT learning to question authority figures or doctrines

[@user95395]

It is. I learned it in 8th grade English class and it was touched on in social studies in 7th grade. This is in Las vegas, which has been the worst school district for 35+ years. If it was taught here it's taught everywhere. Americans are not fans of being smart, but fans of appearing smart cuz they watch a particular cult leader.

[@culturapopeespiritualidade6566]

This is such an important warning to all of us... specially because it also applies for relationships persuasion.

[@jowvial17]

I didn't realize I signed up for getting some Monstrum in my Other Words today! 😱

[@nancyperry2800]

I agree with a lot you said, but have another theory. I am a retired Clinical Psychologist and have been extensively trained in the field of hypnosis. The work of Milton Ericsson explains how many people may be greatly influenced and actually hypnotized into following a leader by the shock techniques used by many political leaders.

[@AugustusCaesarcr]

For the seminar in linguistics of my master degree I'm doing a final essay EXACTLY on this topic, only also applying it to far-right movements in America. So, enough to say that this video came VERY handy and I WILL cite it on my bibliography 😌

[@columbus8myhw]

You should (read and) cite the Montell book! It goes much more into depth into all of these things, and it's a big source for the video.

[@spugintrntl]

When she started talking about key phrases I immediately thought of "fake news"...

[@josiee0874]

Good for you!

[@mattropolis99]

If you want bonus points, find it at work in far left movements too. You can absolutely see it everywhere if you look. If you don't think it exists in a certain area (business, politics, non-profits, etc) then it might be indicating your exact blind spot.

[@churroman29]

Fake news is a great one lol. Hate it. All political 'cults' love thought terminating cliches (see: "trans rights are human rights"). But that's just the nature of campaign slogaining, right? Short, repeatable, evocative phrases.

[@katherineozbirn6622]

Thank you for confirming the loss of language and cognition that I'm seeing in my students. I get essays full of jargon platitudes, it is starters, and "you-packed" point of view; when I ask them to revise and offer concrete language and examples, they accuse me of stifling their expression. In less than a generation, they will be ripe for following the leader off a cliff. Whatever that leader is is our best conjecture, but Big Brother comes to mind.

[@ReneeB-mz9cx]

How dare you stifle their programmed creativity

[@hedgehog3180]

I feel like you should probably be suspecting ChatGPT more since it has a strong tendency to overuse adjectives and adverbs.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

Word of the Day: ‘Dysf**ktion’

[@JoeJaJoeJoe]

they got little blue pills for that

[@dhillaz]

Dr. Erica is secretly a top contributor at Urban Dictionary

[@_D_P_]

Don't censor speech. "Dysfucktion"

[@TakionDMT]

Insane the parallels in so much of this and organized religion

[@Jane-Doe.1126]

exactly all are cults no matter what they say. They are no better than gangs.

[@seekervaltriz9447]

Not at all. Religions are overgrown cults.

[@amberlisa7365]

@Daniel-b6s hmmmmm I wonder who? Think I know! But she’s right, at this point it’s everywhere.

[@tonytins]

And now we know the signs, and what to look out for.

[@willemakkermans4067]

You'll never need to look far.

[@juncohill]

If anyone wants to learn more about various cults I HIGHLY reccomend the podcast "Let's Talk About Sects." Sarah is an incredible researcher, she prioritizes the voices of survivors and sticks to the hard facts. No wild speculation, no spectacle, no prattle, and no distasteful jokes. edit: wording and emphasis

[@saskiascott8181]

Wow - they don't break your will, but incrementally change your sense of reality - just through words! Blows my mind

[@calunio]

I feel like, in this context, "Cult" is a dangerously loaded word. She's basically describing a much of language tools that permeate many social dynamics, some of them very positive like creating a sense of belonging. That's just how groups work. Saying that they're all "cult tools" and that all those other social speech "borrowed tools from cults" attributes a negative load to things that shouldn't be perceived as negative.

[@meikala2114]

the talking talking talking is a red flag for narcissism and psychopathy

[@Toobenator]

Agree to disagree.

[@peteck007]

I know a cult which asks its followers not to leave the faith, or else they will be sent to the supreme being, and the supreme being will throw them into hell. Which is of course has all the sorts of methods and torture practices. Sadly that cult is all around us and have gotten totally menace to the every society where they put their foot.

[@kerry-ch2zi]

Clear-headed, educated, and concise. Thumbs up!

[@PokhrajRoy.]

I’ve been meaning to read ‘Cultish’ for ages. I hear it’s an interesting book. 2:52 Yay it was referenced

[@dg-hughes]

It has a huge following /s

[@LovlyHorror]

I absolutely believe that people just assume your smart if you talk a lot. I cannot tell you how many idiots I've been around who everyone treats with such reverence and unironically calls them geniuses even though you just have to listen to the words coming out their mouths to know that they're morons who just love the sound of their own voices more than anyone else possibly could.

[@bryanmaloney6786]

"Trust the plan" would fit in very well with 12 step groups.

[@Lyrielonwind]

Also in some therapist online: "trust the process".

[@CFinch360]

12 Step Group members (eg AA) might counter with the word "We know only a little, these 12 steps are but a suggestion" As a 36 year member of one type of 12 step program, I've NEVER heard anyone refer to the 12 Steps as a "Plan" or hear anyone say "Trust the Plan". I have heard a lot of great suggestions and recommendations which, when implemented, saved my life.

[@blooddumpster3427]

Y'all should've made this about the orange one

[@nerdnam]

It kind of is.

[@blooddumpster3427]

@@nerdnam you can't just allude to it and pretend you've made a statement about it lol

[@DarcyCowan]

While it would have been cathartic/vindicating for those outside the cult, presenting it this way makes it easier for those who are inside to watch and not feel attacked. Hopefully they would recognise some of the signs and get themselves out.

[@forschooluseonly7697]

I get it. A certain 34 felony charge person you’re talking about right? 😉😉

[@Felmania1]

I can’t imagine this happening today though. There’s really no groups out there that are trying to control what we say, think, and do through the use of compelled speech and denial of objective reality.

[@r00pea]

Obvs, thankfully we've grown into a much more enlightened society

[@ChiefRxcka]

Dr B's earring game is _always_ on point!!

[@r00pea]

Yeah those are cool!

[@adalbertoruiz7651]

I'm a Spiritualist and I see many of these things among spiritual preachers. I don't fall easily for them, because I question everything and that's how I started my journey and got rid of institutionalized religion in the first place. But many people are still used to accepting rather than investigating, believing rather than knowing, and that's how the problem starts. Major religions (specially western religions) use these same strategies, with the difference that they're not always inflicting harm or exploiting their followers (although it happens also). When words go beyond functionality and start getting embellished, too pompous and prolix, I automatically feel there's something suspicious. Thankfully today we have informations like the ones in this video to make ourselves conscious of such "subtle" dangers.

[@wadeoden8464]

The difference between Heaven's Gate, Jim Jones, etc. and Scientology is that the former ended in tragedy, and the latter basically OWNS Clearwater, FL, Tom Cruise, and a lot of other 'property'.

[@ChopBassMan]

Scientology has been more successful in adding the principles of capitalism to it's BS.

[@grumpyparsnip]

TIL the concept of a "thought terminating cliche." Very useful to label them as such when they come up I think.

[@r00pea]

Super useful, I love that there is a name for the concept. The bigger challenge is how to circumvent their use? People don't want to have to face the uncomfortable thoughts, and we want to lazily stick to our gut rather than thinking critically. I'm sure there are some tricks to focusing the attention back to the topic at hand when one's instinct is to terminate it.

[@sweetcyanidetea]

I studied Linguistics at my Faculty and one of the things that I remember clearly was the idea of the language you use being the thing that dictates how you see the world and choose to live . I found it so strange when people started bringing up new made up words in this weird "you must speak like this or you are a bad person// enemy" and I couldn't put my finger on what was the problem. And this is it, they are trying to reshape how we see ourselves and how we process the things that happen so we act accordingly to their ideal world. Such and interesting topic, I will do more research and I gotta say this: Your video editing skills are incredible! Graphs, drawings and text on the screen were so well coordinated with your content, it was hard not to watch.

[@E4439Qv5]

"I'm already my own worst enemy, and I can't be expected to defeat me _myself."_

[@hedgehog3180]

Aren't you assuming that your current view is already the optimal one if you're instantly rejecting any new views?

[@wintermoonomen]

I've heard many pastors use the word 'WE' if not 'US' which to me is just as scary

[@jamesengland7461]

Huh? You're hanging a lot on a 2 letter word which rightly describes any speaker speaking to any group.

[@fancyfeast4610]

My parents, teachers, boss, work mates and strangers use these words too 😮

[@victorious592]

“Your perception of reality depends less on the physical things you see than the words you hear.” Mic drop!

[@ryanrobinson5019]

That was a lot of talking. I'm convinced!

[@timetraveller717]

Please make a video about business jargon. It’s becoming impossible to communicate with colleagues inside corporations because their language is so overloaded with cliches and buzz words.

[@E4439Qv5]

I don't think it'll be worth the ROI.

[@timetraveller717]

@@E4439Qv5 why so? It’s a big issue now. Executives are complaining that employees use too much jargon ( which has been actually promoted by that same management all along) and at the same time they push for standardization of processes! Well,, accept the standardization of language then, I’d like to tell them! One cannot go without the other!

[@GabrielKerr]

It’s fascinating to me how much the quality of a person’s virtue contributes toward how authentic their leadership is. If you are an intelligent person with very strong opinions and can communicate them very convincingly (and many times you don’t even need to sound all that convincing as much as confident) you can draw a following. One need only understand what it is that people desire and speak toward that desire in an understanding and confident way. A great and charismatic salesman can also have a deeply corrupted soul and very much hate people, wishing to manipulate them like dumb sheep for monetary gain. People need better ways of being able to gauge the virtue of a person on a soul level. Using Hitler and MLK in the same category is laughable. Hitler deeply hated people. King deeply loved even his enemies.

[@EyeDigress]

y'all snapped in the best way with this one. best series on youtube.

[@Tupadre97]

I love how she pointed out it was flavoraid and not kool aid 😂

[@brokenrecord3523]

Thank you for this. I have no idea if any Trumpers will realize that they are being manipulated, but at least we can recognize what's going on.

[@m0rg4n1sm]

“they” and “we”… sounds a lot like “us and them”.

[@justsomenobody889]

I don’t like the guy personally but I see just as much cultishness on the left as I do with the hardcore Trumpers. Same phenomenon with different themes

[@brokenrecord3523]

@@justsomenobody889 Just as much? Football fans say "we." Is that the kind of thing you mean? When Hillary lost, did she incite an insurrection? You see Biden talking incessantly? Trump's famous thought ending cliche: "It is what it is." referring to covid. Sorry: "life ending cliche." Your comment sounds a little like "Fine people on both sides."

[@justsomenobody889]

@@brokenrecord3523 I'm not on anyone's side thank-you-very-much, getting on a side is a great way to shut down your critical thinking skills

[@r00pea]

@@justsomenobody889 The Trumpists obviously show much more cultish behavior, there is nobody even remotely close to being obsessed over as a "savior" by the left. I mean even Obama was insanely popular and people showed up to his campaign events and fainted at the sight of him, but there were no Obama flags(!) and Obama hats...can you imagine crowds storming the Capitol in support of 44 chanting "hang Joe Biden"?! The sad reality is that the more people are sucked into identity politics and culture wars, the less they care about facts or evidence or new ideas. It's really hard to communicate in a productive way with people who aren't able or willing to think critically. That's not to say "centrism" is the answer; I have always considered myself a socialist and I'm sure I have my own blind spots, but I'm pretty equally repulsed at the closed-mindedness of cultural warriors of all stripes.

[@elainebelzDetroit]

Thank you for this! It's so important. It's amazing to me how often people ignore certain patterns of speech that are loaded with /short-hand for specific meanings, e.g.

[@jenniferhiemstra5228]

You can't ignore what you're not aware of in the first place. When this isn't even taught, what do we expect? This not being taught is absolutely done on purpose. That in itself is scary. Education access being chipped away, arts ebbing defunded? This is no accident.

[@r00pea]

@@jenniferhiemstra5228 Really good points and thought-provoking. I tend to get frustrated with people for patterns of behavior they can't comprehend because they aren't aware of them, which I realize is not productive. The only solution is teaching people how to think, and that generally has to start from learning to ask questions at a young age.

[@kylem7153]

"Support the troops" "Trust the science" "Think different" "Children are the future" "Safety first" "Venti blonde breve caffe misto"

[@pretendtobenormal8064]

I want Otherwords merch! I'd happily buy a shirt and some stickers...

[@Leash_Canada]

I love Storied and the interesting video ideas that not only teach adults but are clear and understandable by teens as well.

[@heartlights]

The most startling moment is when you realize your first reaction is to try to control people like Jim Jones with your words...

[@nathanmichael167]

I'm not buying the difference between cults and mainstream religions. I've studied the main ones, and they use words frequently to segment "those who are" from those who aren't". Words like Inphadel and non-saved. Cults are smaller, so the the jargon has to be reiterated more, as opposed to main stream religion, where the jargon is usually taught as a child and even as adults through media. Thus, the religious leaders are similar to cult leaders, with the exception being that they religious leaders get a highway to the controlling jargon.

[@kurteisner67]

That's the most amusing orthography for "infidel" I've ever seen, lol I think your point has some merit, but I believe that there's more of a gradient really. I think the main difference between mainstream religions and a cult is that there's more diversity among mainstream religions. One could of course argue that this is kind of a functional necessity or so, and maybe that's the case. But within all mainstream religions there's a lot of differences between both congregants and clerics between what they believe, how they practice and so on. A cult hasn't. There's one clear leader with supreme authority, and the rest either follows 100% or has got a big problem very soon.

[@justsomenobody889]

I think religions go pretty far in that direction but most people agree you don’t hit actual cult status until you start discouraging followers from socializing outside the group. Some religions do this, some don’t. Could even be specific to an individual church within a larger religion.

[@paulster185]

Not only religions, you can see the same thing in secular movements.

[@DavidCalderonNJ]

I stumbled across some nexium members that tried to use their tactics on me. I'm too rebellious and smart to ever fall for any of it. All my life I've been able to spot manipulation and language tricks it started at church, today I'm atheist. Since I was child I had the intuition to distrust the members of the group that speak the most and immediately shut them down using my superior intellect.

[@juliadandy6019]

The blooper killed me! What an important video!!

[@davidbarber3821]

The bloopers are as good as the main content

[@sth128]

​@@davidbarber3821the bloopers deprograms the viewer.

[@r00pea]

@@sth128 Lol

[@ThalesWell]

Quantity of speech also just means that person is the one the people remember simply by virtue of having more exposure to that one voice in proportion to total words spoken by everyone.

[@kemonopriestess]

I feel like that thing regarding writing simple versus being loaded with jargon explains quite a bit about the people I lately have been interacting with.

[@kemonopriestess]

Reddit mods.

[@acsaudiodramas]

Highly interesting video. I grew up in a cult and later discovered that all kinds of groups of subcultures have their own set of terms - especially when they follow certain ideologies. People's language give away their shared mindsets. So chosen language can also warn us.

[@hazemsy2797]

Basically every religion.

[@sundeutsch]

True.

[@NewMessage]

Lingo has been used to exclude the non-initiated since the dawn of time.

[@1976Copper]

The most extreme and destructive arena for these tactics of control is the military, yet it is generally left out of such discussions and presentations. As a college instructor, I never saw more damaged or psychologically victimized people than I saw among young enlistees, even those who did not see combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every last one of them comes out traumatized and broken, unable to form authentic relationships or to love again. Never met a single veteran who wasn't damaged for life. Why is the biggest and most murderous cult of all always left out?

[@Buckoux]

Language is the driver of human history. Not religion, not race, not politics, but human language.