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.