Posted by Jay Livingston
The idea that the passive voice must be avoided at all costs is of course wrong-headed. Still, passive voice remains a refuge for writers who would rather not say who’s doing what.
Ross Douthat, in his column today (here) on the causes of political correctness, twice says that liberal economic policy proposals “are mostly blocked.”
| the paths forward for progressive economic policy are mostly blocked — and not only by a well-entrenched Republican Party, but by liberalism’s ongoing inability to raise the taxes required to pay for the welfare state we already have.* Since a long, slow, grinding battle over how to pay for those commitments is unlikely to fire anyone’s imagination, it’s not surprising that cultural causes — race, sex, identity — suddenly seem vastly more appealing. |
In that first phrase, Douthat allows that it’s the Republicans who are doing the blocking, but then he adds a clause about the “liberalism’s inability” to pass economic legislation as though this inability were something different from the Republican Party. This is a little like talking about “the Colts inability to score points” without mentioning the Patriots defense.
A few paragraphs later, when Douthat repeats this idea, he doesn’t even bother to go beyond the passive voice: “because the paths to economic distribution are mostly blocked, the more plausible way . . .” How about this rewrite: “Because Republicans block all tax and spending proposals that might discomfit the rich. . . .”
I am not saying that Douthat is wrong about the relation between the Republican’s disproportionate** dominance and the cultural left’s attention to political correctness – I think it goes beyond even what he’s talking about. But I hope that Douthat’s attempt to obscure the role of Republican legislators, in part by using the passive voice, has not gone unnoticed.***
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* Douthat announces this “we can’t afford it” view of Medicare and Social Security (which account for most of “welfare state we already have”) as though it were undisputed fact. It isn’t. Nor is there agreement as to how long it will be until these programs become unaffordable if nothing is changed.
** At the national level, more people voted for Democrats than for Republicans.
*** Yes, I am well aware that this sentence breaks not only the rule against passive voice but also the rule outlwawing “not-un–” construction.
3 comments:
This Doubthat is not a good writer -- just look at this ghastly sentence from the article you cite: "Whether on issues, like transgender rights, that extend from gay rights, or on older debates over rape and chauvinism, there’s a renewed sense that what happens in relatively cloistered environments can have wide ripples, and that taking firm control of a cultural narrative can matter much more than anything that goes on in Washington."
But he's not much of a thinker either. The fact is, the left has always had an authoritarian, shut-you-mouth streak whether raising taxes is feasible or not. Just look at campaign finance laws, or the "fairness doctrine," or "card check" in unions, or shouting down conservative speakers or... one could go on and on. Leftists love to silence opposition, and the Times columnist you cite here dodges this basic, inherent quality while lamely positing his silly thesis about blocked taxes.
Try reading right wingers with more robust minds, Jay. You might encounter both robust writing and penetrating thought.
-Claude
Thanks for your continued interest in this blog. You might have noticed that this post was not about any of the right-wing bêtes noires you haul up. Hell, it wasn’t even about Douthat’s guesses about the campus left. (I like your spelling of his name btw – a clever of indicating the dubious quality of most of what he says. ) My post was about the use of the passive voice to obscure agency. (That means as a way of not saying who’s doing what.) You could have learned that this was the topic by actually reading the post. I realize that such attention to small details like what the post is about can be a daunting task for some, but there was a big hint waiting for those who read as far as the title “No Pass on the Passive.”
Keeping your comments on-topic will be easier with my next post, “Is Freezing-Ass Cold a Brand?”
Oh ouch. I misspelled a name -- horrors. Glad you caught that. And I tried to steer you to better writers. Sorry. And apparently you didn't want readers to read and discuss the article that you linked to. Okay. I lost my head.
By the way, did you see that another Fox News on-air reporter was caught lying? Yes, Bryan Williams apparently told a war story about himself that proved untrue... Oh wait. Williams is not Fox News but NBC. He and his network again caught lying -- like CBS, the New Republic, the New York Times (remember that Times reporter who made up entire front-page stories?). I just think you ought to start getting your news from other than the Times and other unreliable sources. Just trying to help, as I know truth in journalism is an interest of yours.
Well, I can see you do not welcome comments (there don't seem to be any ever), so I'll not check in here any more.
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