An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language: Learn to Hear What's Left Unsaid

by Ali Almossawi

Tens 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 grocer 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 neighboring 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Writing, Humor, Philosophy, Language, Psychology

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 9, 2021

About the author

Ali Almossawi is the author of books on critical thinking. His books have reached 3.5 million readers, translated into 22 languages, and have sold over 370,000 copies in print. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as the author's earlier "An Illustrated Book of bad Arguments," but still full of charming illustrations, still very readable, and still cove3ring important topics. Part of the problem is structural - logical fallacies have a well worked out taxonomy, where bad faith and deceptive arguments and reporting do not. That said, it's important to keep track of the rhetorical techniques that are used to make bad faith persuasion and so this book is great for being so readable and accessible.

**Thanks to the author, illustrator, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Ali Almossawi]

Hello. If you happened to receive a copy of the book with an upside down cover, please email me or the publisher. We'll make it right. It's been a bit of a challenge getting books printed this fall. Thank you.

[Autumn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had so much potential! The bones were there to create a fun way of sharpening your skills at discerning intent in writing today but the meat was confusing! The author tried to change details of current (2020ish) headlines so that you would see the loaded language and not be biased by names/groups/places. But all you end up doing is trying to figure out who are the ‘rabbits’ and who the ‘badgers’ and how does any of it make sense. Then the last 3 chapters left me struggling to give this even 3 stars….edited to give it 2 stars after thinking more on it. His leftist position didn’t seem all that hidden and gave a much clearer view of the intent of the whole book.

[Bejinha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important and short book about the subtle language tricks the media and government use to fool us.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book displays and illustrates an amusing array of rhetorical devices and tactics used by media, politicians, and yikes-maybe even your friends in conversation.

As the author points out, our brain is an amazing association-making machine, but the way we organize our steady stream of incoming data can make it be susceptible to negative or prejudicial associations without our realizing it.

So as a Comm major back in the day, I love me some rhetoric studies. I was expecting a wry, witty manual much like Dreyer’s English but I felt it did not live up to those expectations. I think it was, overall, a tedious read.

Firstly, the Rabbit/badger examples used over and over because “you humans have a divisive-enough political climate as it is” given, made for cute drawings but their inclusion in the copy was, I thought, unnecessarily confusing and obfuscated critical points.

Also in many cases where rabbit/badger wasn’t used, citations were obscured anyway. I.e, speaking of a ‘certain’ or ‘top’ author, op-ed, podcaster, anchorman, or even a country that doesn’t allow names that “identify a newborn’s social group too strongly.” Why not ID the book, the newspaper, the podcast, the network, the country? I read to learn stuff, not for blithe allusions.

So while there were good points expressed throughout -and there were! - you had to sift through quite a lot of snark to get to them. I might have enjoyed this more as an audiobook.

[Carol McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good introduction / refresher on ways language can be manipulated.

[S.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short little refresher on language manipulation that doubles as a vehicle for the author to champion the covid-19 narrative (of all things) and vent their personal political opinions. Examples see-saw between fictional rabbits vs badgers and real recent events from 2020 to present. Why? Isn't it more cohesive to just pick one or the other? Or was that part of the lesson? Either way, this thing slated itself for quick obsolescence the day it was published. Obviously marketed for young social justice types.

[Tian Kwock · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5)

[Wrapped Up in Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

An approachable book that can be summed up with “words matter”, but spelled out for the masses that aren’t attuned to the use of language in the media and how it manipulates situations. People in the media often do this in a passive way, downplaying the severity of situations, lest the people become radicalized. Wordplay can at times satisfy the reader or listener that does not want to critically think about what it being said. They can think, “Oh good, this issue will be resolved in a matter of weeks”. Well, that can me anything. Two weeks? Two hundred weeks? Both are a “matter of weeks”.

I paid particular attention to the language of people who want to come across as objective, and the language of neutral people. Neutrality is something that I have little patience for and was glad to see neutral language analyzed in one or two of the sections of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced review copy. 4 stars! This book is available to purchase or borrow now.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. I mostly felt like I was reading a Wikipedia page and would have appreciated more analysis instead of a list of terms and an example or two. I also didn't like the mix of real headlines with sample badger/rabbit ones. I get the goal may have been to make general examples, but I would have preferred all real-world examples.

[Peter Derk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most books of this type: Incredibly useful for the precise people who will never pick it up, and I fear it'll mostly be used by Redditors to bolster their side of arguments and then conveniently forgotten when it's time to assess their own positions on things.

And, Redditors: Guys, when someone asks a question, don't answer their question in a stupid way.

When someone says, "Hey, I want to run a Raspberry Pi from a USB thumb drive instead of an SD card, how do I go about that?" don't say, "An SD card is a more reliable format, you're better off not doing the USB thing."

Look, the motherfucker trying to do that USB thing isn't going to set himself on fire. He's not asking, in the electronics sub, about the best way to cut off the third prong from an extension cord because he needs to plug it into an outlet with only 2 prongs in order to power a large space heater. That fool is going to get himself killed, so you don't need to answer his question.

Some other fool trying to run a tiny lil computer in a way that is perhaps sub-optimal is not dangerous. He's not going to run out of his apartment on fire, screaming.

It really is my Reddit pet peeve.

Someone will say, "I want to take up running, but it hurts my knees," and some dipshit will say, "You should swim laps instead." Thanks, dipshit.

Reddit can have some of the best answers to the most niche shit, but goddamn does it suffer from know-it-alls who know exactly dick.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language covers a variety of ways that language can be used to manipulate perceptions, especially by politicians and the media. It does a pretty decent job of covering a mixture of what happens in the media, and the illustrations definitely help make things clearer. I do wish there were more illustrations, as I feel like it was a bit light on them for a book that says it's illustrated in the title (one of the chapters had no illustrations at all, but as I read an advanced readers' copy, I wonder if perhaps this was different in the final edition). Also, while I understand that many of the real-world stories were changed to reflect woodland characters instead of the real world to prevent reader bias from intruding, I felt a bit weird about how some of these stories were presented.

I don't think it was as good as An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, but they're both still worth the read to help become more media literate and avoid falling into the traps that both books speak of. An Illustrated Book of Loaded Language is a bit of a mixed bag, but ultimately it's still a good educational resource.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it's because I was reading an ARC, but the title really overstates the number of illustrations. There was an illustration at the start of each chapter, but that was it. I was hoping for some cartoon that would help get the points across, but no.

If the author meant that they were going to instill in the reader an understanding of loaded language, and in that way illustrate the ideas, then it did that...a little bit. Some of the explanations were more confusing than just pointing out the key words that would lead the reader to be able to discern loaded language in the wild.

For these two reasons, I am going to rate this book 2 stars. It wasn't terrible, but I don't think it did what it set out to do.

My thanks to the Experiment and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[pampampampampam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is basically an expanded discussion of logical fallacies, but couched in this weird rabbits vs. badgers metaphor. The rabbits and badgers were so distracting! What's the point? On page 72, Almossawi cites a quote by Bobby Kennedy and introduces the quote as follows: "In a 1961 broadcast, an ex-attorney general, brother to the then-president, says." Then, directly after said quote, the author quotes James Baldwin who explicitly names (guess who?) Bobby Kennedy! Why this whole vague, faux-neutral language in the first place? I see no benefit to re-labeling groups as animals, and the illustrations add nothing to the impact of the book.

Additionally, the author often attributed quotes to "a paper of note" instead of just ... naming the publication. It's been printed--why not cite it properly?

[MookNana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent guide to the biases and agendas that can slip into our language. Several real-life examples are used, as well as other examples that are couched more obliquely in order to help the reader focus on the substance of the point, instead of their reaction to the subject of the quote.

This is a great, and enjoyable, resource for anyone who would like to become a more discerning consumer of media. We're all susceptible to biases, prejudices, and faults in our thinking and this kind of self-evaluation helps us combat that. This would be a wonderful addition to high school and college libraries and curricula (possibly even middle school for advanced students).

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic. The author uses a cast of belligerent badgers and rabbits in the place of names that have appeared in actual news headlines to highlight just how pervasive loaded language is in our sources of media.
Those who are complaining about these stories being nonsense, it is because they are supposed to be. If the author used the original headline we would be focusing more on the news behind it, not the loaded language this book is about. What's important is how those words are twisted to illicit certain responses from the reader so that when the reader reads the next "Badger dies in barrage of gunfire at Rabbit rally" headline, they can better read between the lines to think critically about what they're reading.

[Ron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ali Almossawi and Alejandro Giraldo (illustrator) provide a timely title on the use and misuse of language in public discourse, traditional media, and social media. They pack a lot of concepts in less than a hundred pages. However, unlike in his book on bad arguments, the seven chapters lack coherence and structure while rambling around the concepts in each chapter. Also, the illustrations seem to be randomly placed rather than an integral part of the arguments. This title is a worthy effort that falls short of the goals put forth in the forward.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like the Authors other book..in an attempt to simplify topics, they inadvertently complicate the topics.
This book seems to be aimed at children…but presents its material in a way that confuses the average reader.
I mean I get the intent…try to present the complexities of news - and how news is presented…but by anthropomorphizing animals to take the place of the subjects of the news, they confuse the heck out of the message.

Not really for kids, too simple for adults. The book fails its intended purpose.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed. It's really dense, the examples are mixed in with commentary. 😔 It's really hard to learn what's loaded language.

The rabbits and badgers are confusing, but I get it. Avoids trouble. But it's confusing when that is then mix with real things like missiles and COVID 19.
The most confusing aspect is sometimes it was rabbits and badgers, then sometimes it's CNN and Trump. 😔

I don't think I'm going to finish it. 😔

[Cindy Dobrez]

I had to buy this when I saw it on the YA Nonfiction shelf at my local Indie bookstore. I loved Almossawi's earlier book, An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments, and am really looking forward to this one.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Richard Derus]

acsm expires October 15

[Chester · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not impressed but worth an hour

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! Very readable and accessible, clear explanations, I loved that he used rabbits and badgers as examples instead of using the real life categories of people.

[Dana Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important topic and contains some good material but I wish it went into more depth.

[Dot N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tricky subject to tackle. I liked the accessible approach, and the breadth of examples.

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, fast read about the many ways biased and incomplete language feeds polarized views.

[Elaine]

Very useful, lots to think about.

[Steven Kolber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some exciting bits and pieces, didn’t engage too deeply with some concepts core to the idea of loaded language. Not conceptually dense, but some good disparate and disorganised ideas.

[Don Gubler · Rating 1 out of 5]

A not insignificant waste of time.