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Comment by dllthomas | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure to what degree your apology is tongue-in-cheek, but I'll just leave this here. There is nothing wrong with the passive voice when used correctly; evasive sentences are equally a problem (or not a problem) whether written in the active or passive voice, and it's quite possible to be evasive or not with either.

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2922

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Passive voice is also a bland, meek way to avoid using gendered pronouns. I much prefer using an active verb if I can think of one, and singular them.

I have a question for you: how can you be actively evasive -- care to demonstrate by not actually answering my question? ;)

Interesting. It seems passive voice can be used that way. I don't see any reason to complain unless the usage is strained, though (including, possibly, through the destruction of diversity in sentence structure - a crime that insistence on the active can also commit).

As to your last point, I am not proving witty enough to abide by your request in an amusing manner, so I will simply address your question: it is completely possible to avoid assigning blame with the active. A classic example would be, "They say...". Or compare the active "Someone made a mistake" with the passive "Mistakes were made by Steve."

It might date me, but my English teacher explained the passive voice, and its nefarious uses, by quoting Ronald Reagan on the Iran/Contra Scandal: "Mistakes were made."

Yes, that's quite explicitly what I was referencing. It was weasely and it used the passive voice, but that is more or less coincidental. Your English teacher was wrong.

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