How Cult Leaders Use Provocatively Loaded Language to Control Their Followers

Dr. Erica Brozovsky, PhD of the PBS series Otherwords explained how cult leaders use provocatively loaded language with their followers to create an adversarial relationship with the “other side” of their way of thinking – an “us versus them” mentality. It also keeps them invested, obedient, and ready to defend their way of thinking to anyone who questions them

Loaded language is a general term for words or phrases that have deep emotional associations for the listener, like genocide, patriot, toxic, or vermin. …Through repetition, these leaders ingrained an intense emotional association in their follower’s psyche …They shut down argument and critical thinking, which is why they’re so handy to authoritarians who don’t like to be questioned.