I love the passive voice for avoiding all responsibility

[Inland]

The passive voice is so great for avoiding responsibility, because blame can't be assigned for something nobody actually did.

See for example the DOD admission of something that happened at Gitmo in its regular Friday Night News Dump:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1521619&mesg_id=1521619&page=

"a guard's urine splashed on a detainee and his Quran;"

Reading that sentence, it sounds as if the urine did something all on its own. That's the passive voice. Compare that beautiful dodge with something like:

"A guard pissed on a Quoran" or "A guard pissed on a detainee and hit the book too".

Why, that sentence has a GUARD doing something. If the active voice is used, then somebody did something and admitting that could lead to criticism. Soon, press releases will have sentences like:

"A Quoran came in contact with urine."

"Iraq became invaded."

"Mistakes occurred."

[knowbody0]

1. a quard's urine splashed

yeah, that happens to me all the time............................scream!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. You wanna know which one drives me

absolutely batship-up-the-wall-screaming-and-foaming-at-the-mouth pissed off insane?

John "I'm Walleyed And Have Never Had Good Sex" Ashcroft's fucking "person of interest."

There is NO SUCH THING in the law. Call them fucking SUSPECTS, which is what they are, but people who use this phrase are such nasty, sneaky little weasels, they know they don't have enough on someone to label them a suspect, so they've adopted the slimy phrase coined by that Constitutional rapist.

(I feel absolutely NO BETTER after this rant.)

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. "Iraq became invaded."

:toast:

[phaseolus]

4. "Mistakes were Made"

[Orrex]

5. Aaaarghh! I hate that!!!

Technically, I don't think that a few of your examples are passive voice ("Mistakes occurred," for example should be "Mistakes were made," but please correct me if I'm wrong). Regardless, your point is excellent and can't be made often enough.

In fact, your examples are even more egregious than passive voice, because--as you correctly identify--they shift the blame from the wrongdoer to the mechanism of the wrongdoing ("urine splashed" et al). They're similar to those asshole pseudo-apologies that go "I'm sorry if anyone was offended," as if it's the offendee's fault that the asshole caused offense. God damn it I hate that!

Another one, while I'm ranting, is when people say "I do apologize," because in saying so, the asshole isn't apologizing; he's doing.

I know that sounds like an anal distinction, but in my line of work I hear it all day long from people paid to speak with accountability-avoiding precision, so I'm confident that I'm correct.

End of rant. Thanks for listening. Aaaargh!
:banghead:

[DeepModem Mom]

6. They are master wordsmiths, and propagandists. nt

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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