Early praise for Toxic Tactics

This book is a wonderful antidote to the last few years’ stunning decline in U.S. and Israeli public discourse. Elana Sztokman brilliantly identifies and explains dozens of ‘toxic’ rhetorical tactics, a vital effort since, as she writes, naming the tactics restores clarity. Sztokman’s latest book offers the light of new understanding, in a time of confusion and despair.

Toxic Tactics is a breath of fresh air in a toxic atmosphere. Sztokman demonstrates that the abuse we think of as distinctly private, such as domestic violence against women, is in reality profoundly linked to the broadest societal, power-oriented behavior. Her analysis provides a huge boost of clarity to help the rest of us fight back.

In this impressively researched guide to the language of manipulation, bullying, and abuse, Elana Sztokman draws on a vast range of scholarship in psychology, linguistics, political science, and history. She offers readers both a field guide and a vocabulary for recognizing toxic rhetoric, showing how it erodes both human relationships and democracy. This is a deeply reported, urgently relevant book.

A thorough analysis of the abusive language soaking our psyches from every quarter. Toxic Tactics explains how we ended up drowning in a sea of lies and vicious propaganda, yet Elana concludes with hope, by offering us practical tools to resist the deluge. All we have to do is use them.

It is not okay for parents to verbally abuse their children. Nor is it okay for partners to verbally abuse one another. So why is it okay when our nation’s leaders verbally abuse their opponents? This much-needed book serves as an antidote to the lying, dismissing, blaming, mocking, shaming, projection, and gaslighting that has taken over our public discourse. By naming the 7 patterns of verbal abuse that have become commonplace in our nation, Dr. Sztokman models the tremendous courage we all need in order to change this situation. As the author so eloquently wrote: “We all need to learn that ‘disagreement is different from dehumanization.’” I highly recommend this book.