re the annoying use of therapy speak: i dont blame people for not knowing this, but when i went to therapy, the therapy speak type of communication was treated like it is the most correct way to talk to people. it is the official scientifically approved way to communicate. and you need to do it.
plus the fact that the common knowledge of reality/the outside world being so sparse for whatever reason, therapy also taught me relentlessly that if i will only speak like that, nothing can go wrong 😐
if someone is overusing therapy speak in a conversation and it's clunky and annoying and seemingly uncalled for, it may be because they had it conditioned into them in therapy to be the only morally correct option that works.
another cult classic: the words "rational" and "irrational" used in therapy cult are not the usual definition. when therapists and psychiatrists call me "irrational", its because i am defying their rigid ideology and mythology, not that im being unrealistic/illogical. i literally explain that i know i was being abused at home because the situation at home matches the definitions and traits of abuse. and that im believing im being abused at home because of the repeating patterns of evidence. and they will call that "irrational". Rationality is compliance with the status quo. Irrational is believing things that arent allowed to be true 🤷🏻 Rational is beliving in good nice things no matter how observably false they are. Rational = compliance to ideology. making observations and drawing conclusions that arent allowed = irrational. grins.
"By talking with former members and other families, you will also have the opportunity to learn the clichés, doublespeak and coded jargon that the group uses to shut down critical thinking. Each group has its own buzzwords and platitudes. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses are forbidden to use the word God. If you want to gather information from a Jehovah’s Witness, use the term Jehovah. In the Twelve Tribes, the word Christian is a great evil. They use the term believer. For me, moon would automatically trigger a picture of Sun Myung Moon instead of the celestial body that orbits the earth. Scientology has two dictionaries of L. Ron Hubbard’s definitions of words. When a Scientologist doesn’t understand or doesn’t agree with a passage, he is instructed to look up words in the cult’s dictionary. Members are indoctrinated to accept Hubbard’s definitions as their own. Some cult members are so thoroughly conditioned that certain words can elicit an automatic psychological or physiological response."
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
i think also, when critical ppl hear or read someone else's testimony of abuse, they construct an imaginary version inside their own mind and try to play out how they think THEY would act, interpret, and react. thats very very normal.
but the problem is, an imaginary version of the circumstances is not the same as the actual real life circumstances. and when someone judges based on their imagination and decide "if this happened to me, i would simply not allow myself to be abused," that is what we in the industry call a stupid thought. You dont understand it as well or better than the person who actually lived it. I promise, you also are not able to accurately judge your own reaction to it just by imagining it. No one is too smart or too strong to be abused, and that means you too.
Also, finally, i think that people get so caught up in their own imagination and use their literal fantasy to criticise victims, that they fail to realize that that victim is talking about what actually happened. what actually happened in the real world. and you in your imagination, are talking about a thought experiment. your thought experiment is not more accurate than what actually happened and is not any measure to judge the victim by. victims who recount abuse in a way that sounds 1. unlikely, unrealistic, or "irrational" 2. unflattering to the victim (they did "reactive abuse" or whatever) or 3. an unsmart/weak way to deal with it, are not experiencing reality incorrectly. They actually lived it, and now they are telling you what it is like. Why is that so hard to understand?
Logical and smart is not when you create an imaginary scenario and then decide that's the only way it could or should happen. I think it happens a lot though. People think "i would have been unaffected by that" or "im too smart to be manipulated" and then use that fantasy to judge that victims were incorrect to have been affected in that way. That they made the wrong choices somehow by being hurt by cruel insults, or scared by threats, or for me, literally being brainwashed, as a result of brainwashing. It's bizarre. Its so beyond unrealistic, and i associate it with "facts and logic" people who are so caught up in seeming smart as a facade to victim blame, that they forget that their own mind is not where the actual world exists. I am not a failure for being abused, when in your own imagination, you imagined yourself being too good to be abused in the same circumstances. What the fuck?
I remember before the therapy abuse got even worse, i thought that the abuse i had endured already had made me understand and know the danger signs, so i was too smart to get sucked in again. lol. i was wrong. and the imagination of ppl who think they are immune somehow is not the ultimate reality defining device. duh. i did not experience life incorrectly when i ended up brainwashed as a result of brainwashing. you know????? like really. if you actually care about reality, you need to examine actual reality instead of your internal version of it. im not wrong about what happened and i did not malfunction. it was not my fault and i did not deserve it. i did not magic manifest it or prove by my reaction that it was necessary. the thing about victim blaming cliches is that they are so hard grained, people will be making up things and then using it as a counter argument. like why cant you just listen??????
whenever its convenient for psychiatry, mental illness IS a personal failure of morals that i have chosen, because i am evil. or its a biologically based disease i cant help. its both purposeful and accidental. its both not my fault and also my fault. its totally outside of my control AND totally within my control. its a chosen moral failing AND a random disease. the biomedical model and the "destigmatize" bullshit is trash and has not erased or even come into conflict with the general idea that mentally ill people are weak victim mentality lazy idiots. they exist together, side by side, and pointed to in turn, when whichever explanation justifies the violence best. it cant be both but they have registered both as true at the same time in their own methodology, and also in the god damn public consciousness. so when they churn out "stupid bitch idiot disorder" labels and include punishments as a "treatment", it makes sense. but it IS double think. you cannot have both if you care about logic or reality at all. you cannot have fucking biologically based moral failing unless you want to do violence and eugenics.
and like. the interrupting ppl to criticise their figures of speech (not allowed to say a situation or person "makes" me feel some way, literally all the cognitive distortion phrases, etc) is just asshole troll behavior. if you interrupt someone to correct their grammar or something similar, you fucking suck. stop that. but in therapy, it's good and fine for a therapist or psychiatrist to interrupt me and correct my language and turn the entire conversation about what improper phrases (no should/shouldnt! no negative labels! no always/nevers! etc) i use and try to get me to "reframe" them. totally disregarding the substance of what i'm trying to communicate. that's just called asshole.
i think the cognitive distortion and "self victimizing language" or whatever other words and phrases they won't allow is utilized as a gotcha so much because it's easy. all you have to do is listen out for a broad array of no-no-phrases and pipe up about it whenever you hear it. you barely have to listen or care, all you have to do is get to play high and mighty and also act like you're helping the crazy person. it's easy. it requires zero critical thinking. it's petty and punishing. and you get to pat yourself on the back. of course therapists love that shit!!!!!
