I just finished the book Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell. It’s about the language that cults will use to essentially brain wash their members (not in the typical brainwash way that you think about). It’s “the technical terms, the redefined words, the shorthand, the clichés, the euphemisms, logical distortions, and so on set members apart from and above their pedestrian neighbors, families, and coworkers". Montell does not necessarily view "cultish" – the "language" she identifies as the set of linguistic tricks cult leaders use to coerce and manipulate members – negatively, but she believes that people should at least be able to recognize it.”
Anyways fucked me up! In the past two days I’m seeing it everywhere, in marketing, in the slogans in my job, in popular work out groups, cliche phrases we all say…… and then i watched the latest episode of severance! I don’t think I’ll watch this show, and more specifically Mr Milchick and other unsevered employees the same.
In this last episode i wanna talk about that acronym ORTBO that they introduced because it’s the most obvious tactic that they used.
Wtf when have you ever heard this weirdly stated acronym? Well the innies do all the time! So this is normal for them to hear, i mean they are from the MDR department! Macrodata refinement, even with that longer version of the word it still doesn’t feel like a full explanation as to what their job does. But to them because they are introduced to it and taught to not question their bosses for fear of punishment and so they just go with it. Which now mdr has become part of their everyday vocabulary they don’t even question the meaning.
Cut to this episode, our innies are unconesntionally ripped out of their regular office space and put into this isolating harsh environment phrased as a reward. They are told they have been good enough to earn this trip and give it a title, the ORTBO, and they are very lucky to be experiencing this.
Later when they have been walking for a lot time, feeling lost and hungry are a considering eating a literal frozen dead seal because this “reward” isn’t feeling like a reward. Dylan reminds them, they are on an ORTBO and he repeats its vague meaning trying to convince them not to doubt the company. Almost trying to convince himself as well. This is the same Dylan that’s been getting fed incentives of seeing his family on the side and have been told he’s extra special. He has more to loose than anyone else right now and by repeating it is trying to stop everyone from doubting. Aka the orbto is working.
“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
Cults will make up words and introduce them in this way to make a group of people feel connected. Like they have been let into this new group of special workers allowed out side and given a term phrased as a reward to squash any train of thought leading to doubt or questioning. The further they go on this team building occurrence they will understand the reward.
They also use this new group language to make the group feel superior and anyone on the outside intrigued into what people are talking about. Making learning the language feel connecting with others and like you are understanding the deeper meaning. They feel superior and anyone on the outside feels like they are missing something.
Cross fit does this well! They have new work out terms like dms (delayed muscle soreness) so if a CrossFit gym bro is talking to a regular gym bro and uses the term DMS, the regular gym bro feels dumb for not knowing what this is and not keeping track of it. And is now curious as to what CrossFit has that he is missing before he knows it he’s sucked in. (I bet you they will bring back this term later if they can to alienate other employees in other departments)
Um hello even in the way they advertised this episode is using this tactic! They didn’t give us the meaning or context they gave us the word and now we wanna know what this new acronym is in the next episode.
Severance universe has literally created a whole new language to keep certain people in the know and others confused. Watch for it!
It’s not always in acronym form; Sometimes it’s a saying, sometimes it’s just a common word given a double meaning to those in the group and out of the group.
Another day another dollar- something we hear all the time to make us just go to work and endure shit we shouldn’t
Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith- something we would hear all the time growing up as Mormon to stop people from questioning and like it’s bad to have critical thought
Endowment- to people out side Mormonism it means gift people inside it’s a whole secret ritual that you are sworn to secrecy or off yourself before telling another soul
lol my work calls its self a village
Its everywhere! It’s in our marketing! It’s in our gyms! It’s at work! We don’t even notice because it’s working.
“Words are the medium through which belief systems are manufactured, nurtured, and reinforced, their fanaticism fundamentally could not exist without them.”-Amanda Montell
Anyways this book has fucked me up and has made severance even better for me
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
“We dropped different numbers of balls at different rates, different heights. We had a ramp. The ramps were at different angles, trying to get the most out of the balls as they hit the actors. After doing the tests, we figured out 35 feet above the deck of the ship was the height we needed our nets. We had these three big nets that held almost 80,000 per net. The balls dropped 35 feet into ramps that projected them towards the stunt guys. It just knocked them over. It was pretty spectacular.”
-Mark Hawker, SFX Coordinator for Pirates of the Caribbean
“It’s amazing to see a bunch of 40 and 50-year-olds turn into three-year-olds all of a sudden. Everybody had to pick up blue balls, hit the other guy in the head. It was like, ’Is it time for the parents to come pick up the kids?’”
-George Marshall Ruge, Stunt Coordinator for Pirates of the Caribbean
i don't care if it's nazis, mormons, or a bunch of misguided autistic people. if anyone ever tries to tell you your soul is from another planet and you're actually part of the class of impressive people that secretly did everything cool in the world but is now extinct and lives on through your broken genome, you RUN. YOU WILL RUN AWAY. YOU WILL SPRINT FULL SPEED AWAY FROM THAT.
grabs you by the shoulders listen. listen to my words. i understand the urge to make fanfiction about yourself and to find a reality in which you're super awesome and great and everyone who hates you is wrong and dumb. i get it. you're better than that. you can love yourself without putting other people down, dehumanizing and generalizing, and retaliating against your oppressors.
there's no NPCs. there's no aliens coming to save us. we're not the next step in human evolution. our hyperconnected nervous systems give us terrible sensory overwhelm more often than they make us geniuses. neurotypical people are sentient, conscious, aware people who are capable of understanding you. we're more the same than we are different. we're more the same than we are different. we're more the same than we are different.
Also stay away from people who say shit like "sexual attraction and romance addles the mind and makes you crazy and irrational and this is why being aro/ace makes you intellectually superior." I've seen that a couple times times on this hellsite. Stay away from anyone who tries to convince you that your racial identity/cultural identity/gender identity/sexual orientation/neurodivergence/any other intrinsic quality makes you a member of some master race that is inherently superior to the other humans.
Also if you hear the words "indigo children" or "crystal children" and you're not listening to a podcast on cults or pseudoscience then do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to right the fuck out of there.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
This is my official job application to be a designer for Disney:
I know I’m being a hater but hear me out…
Disney just recently released an interactive mystery pin hunt for their 70th anniversary. I would compare it to universal studios Harry Potter world, where they allow you to take your wand around and have an interactive experience with areas of diagonal ally. Disney has created keys that you take to various key holes around the parks and once you collect them all it unlocks a mystery pin.
After hearing that i want you to imagine what this key looks like, what would you spend 70 dollars on…
Tell me did it look like this? No? Cause me neither!
This is so fucking big and ugly!!!! I get it that they wanted to make it light up because it’s interactive and allows you to collect each icon from each area. And i get they got to fit the pin and programming for lights and audio on the inside. I get that it’s a similar design to their little light up wands that every little kid begs and screams for, i get it! i get it!
But hear me out, the kids aren’t buying this! Like Cody’s video said, the target audience is Disney adults especially because of the mystery pin reward. Most mystery pin collectors are adults.
I’m not saying this is not a good idea because its clearly making them money. People are literally waiting in lines, sometimes longer than lines for rides, that are being created just to plug your key in and for it to light up and bubbles to come out. Yeah thats right, you are essentially paying 70 dollars to wait in yet another line because it’s so popular. So it’s clearly making them money. (Although it do think its dumb) What I’m saying is its UGLY!
While i was watching Cody’s tik tok here is what i was imagining
Something smaller, maybe about the size of a phone or an iPad, golden with a hidden Mickey or D end. A little thicker at the end where the pin would hide. It’s pretty enough to be on display in your home or fun for your kids to play with later. Like this is straight from Disney’s website so they already know how to design fun keys. But then i had a better idea.
Again it’s for Disney adults, aka millennials, and Disney had the perfect key design handed TO THEM SELVES on silver platter. What on earth could be better than
Kingdom Hearts!!!
Kingdom hearts is literally about going and unlocking things around different Disney worlds, is that not what this key concept literally is!?!?! It could still be relatively the same size as their current design. This key design could be big enough to fit lights and programming and shitty little audios into it. I love the middle picture where it shines something. Imagine being able to shine the symbols you collect on to the ground like that. The pin could easily be hiding in the handle somewhere, in the mickey keychain, or my boyfriend (who is a big kingdom hearts fan) said he thought it would be a good idea to pull the chain and it come out of the handle there. This design is palatable and interactive enough to the masses, it’s cute enough and has features like the Mickey and Castle that even if people don’t know what kingdom hearts is they would still like it. And more importantly It would drive kingdom hearts fans from everywhere to get it. Lastly it would fucking advertise the new kingdoms hearts 4 game thats about to come out at the same damn time.
If thats not a missed opportunity i don’t know what is. Disney hire me i know how to help you, you are so close!
Some other things because i love being a hater:
The key holes are fucking ugly too! It has bubbles and lights up, thats it. Disney come on you have enough money to make it better than that. The capital of animatronics can’t have something better than this? Yeah right! At least something cuter than these, i mean come on that right one form fantasy land is pathetic. The better designs of the ones i saw were the Star Wars, which blended so well into its environment that they could literally leave it there after if they wanted to. The other one that’s okey ish is the ending mickey planter looking one that unlocks your pin out of the key, which was a cute mickey shaped planter. Still not the best but it’s something!
I just wish they would be actually intentional with their decision making, but cause people are just eating up the crumbs they are dropping Disney doesn’t have to be more creative.
I feel like this is similar to when people were talking about giving Tiana her restaurant and giving splash mountain to emperors new groove. (From what I’ve seen the ride did turn out good i just think this idea is better). I can’t be doing all the work for you for free Disney. Just hire me. Trust me bro.
(This will for ever be a Blake Stan account, he is and will forever be the only exception to the Disney adult and i will forever watch all of his videos no matter how shitty the product he’s buying. If i see any Blake hate you will be reported to the police)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
"kindness is punk <3" ok that's great but do you mean giving money to homeless people and listening to people of color and calling out racism when you see it and having compassion for drug addicts or do you mean like. holding the door open for people sometimes
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming