An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language: Learn to Hear What Is Left Unsaid
Ali AlmossawiTens of thousands of demonstrators packed the city’s streets on Friday. The actual count was 250,000. Why tens of thousands, then, and not a quarter million?
The supermarket takes woke orders on its brands from a 17-year-old. The nameless 17-year-old’s opinion seems not worth considering. At what age will it be?
Rabbits zapped three badgers in an ambush last night, hours after six rabbits in a neighbouring town lost their lives. Were the six rabbits the sole participants in losing their own lives? Those silly rabbits …
In this adorably illustrated book, old Mr Rabbit is your guide to these and many more examples of loaded language. He mines real reporting (by respected and rogue media alike) to unmask rhetoric that shifts blame, erases responsibility, dog-whistles, plays on fear, or rewrites history — subtly or shamelessly.
It takes a long pair of ears to hear what’s left unsaid — but when the very notion of truth is at stake, listening for ‘spin’ makes all the difference.
About the Author: Ali Almossawi is the author of An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language, Bad Choices: An Illustrated Introduction to Computational Thinking, and The Point of Pointless Work. His books have reached by 3.5 million readers, translated into 22 languages, and have sold over a quarter of a million copies in print. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.
He regularly posts on critical thinking at: almossawi.substack.com