An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language: Learn to Hear Whats Left Unsaid (Bad Arguments)

This is a book for every thinking person, the perfect antidote to todays culture wars.Hope Jahren The creators of An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments return with this desperately timely guide to how words can trick us. Learn to hear hidden bias, slant, and spinfrom an irresistible cast of woodland creatures! Public discourse? More like public discord. The battle cries of our culture wars are rife with loaded languagebe it bias, slant, or spin. But listen closely, or youll miss what Ali Almossawi finds more frightening still: words that erase accountability, history, even identity through what they leave unsaid. Speaking as wise old Mr. Rabbit, Almossawi leads us through a dark forest of rhetoricaided by Orwell, Baldwin, and a squee-worthy cast of wide-eyed woodland creatures. Here, passive voice can pardon wrongdoers, statistics may be a smokescreen, gaslighting entraps the downtrodden, and irrelevant adjectives cement stereotypes. Emperor Squirrel isnt naked; he has a clothes-free sartorial style. Mouses roof becomes flattened (Elephants foot just happens to be there at the time). And when keen-eyed Owl claims a foreign shore, he seems to be overlooking someone . . . Fans of Almossawis An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments couldnt ask for a better primer on the less logical ways that words can trick us. It takes a long pair of ears to hear whats left unsaidbut when youre a rabbit in a badger world, listening makes all the difference. 15 illustrations