# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 7, 2022, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018 "2022-02-07T00:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 407
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8127 "2023-02-23T18:52:43Z")
I saw that yesterday and it just makes me sputter with rage at these assholes. Just who in the hell do they think they are? What the fuck is wrong with them? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8128 "2023-02-23T19:12:26Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > Just who in the hell do they think they are? Republicans. > [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > What the fuck is wrong with them? They are Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8129 "2023-02-23T19:24:00Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > > [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > > > What the fuck is wrong with them? > > They are Republicans. In Florida. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8130 "2023-02-23T19:46:11Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > I don’t know who these people are, but here are a group of lovely people harassing motorists they identify as Jews. In the tweet it says: > Police are refrained from doing anything. “Refrained”?? Should that be _restrained_? Or should it be “police are _refraining_ from doing anything”? And what _police_? City? County? State? What governmental has the authority to order the police to arrest these people or at least disperse them? Where does the buck stop? The evil _passive voice_ succeeds again in obscuring information. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8131 "2023-02-23T20:01:05Z")
It’s just an incomplete sentence. Should be something like “Police are ordered/encouraged/urged to refrain from doing anything” Nothing fundamentally wrong with passive. More the fact that copy editing is a lost skill, especially on Twitter ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8132 "2023-02-23T20:26:36Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The evil _passive voice_ succeeds again in obscuring information. > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Nothing fundamentally wrong with passive. Yes there is – it doesn’t say _who_ restrained (or encouraged them to refrain) from doing anything. And that’s essential information. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8133 "2023-02-23T20:31:23Z")
That’s not a problem of active/passive. That’s again a copy editing problem. A poorly written sentence is poorly written whether it’s written in active or passive voice. E.g. “the police were ordered by the mayor to refrain from doing anything” vs “the mayor ordered the police to refrain from doing anything” ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8134 "2023-02-23T21:37:07Z")
Or “Police ~~are~~ refrained from doing anything.” With the “are” being a typo. Maybe was originally, “Police are not doing anything”, and in the re-write, didn’t take out the original “are”. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8135 "2023-02-23T22:01:42Z")
Passive voice is not liked by Akaj because sentences which were written in that voice are the cause of boredom in readers. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8136 "2023-02-23T22:59:09Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Or “Police ~~are~~ refrained from doing anything.” > > With the “are” being a typo. > > Maybe was originally, “Police are not doing anything”, and in the re-write, didn’t take out the original “are”. Oh. 💡 You’re probably right. Very good. 👍🏽 * * * * * * > [@Akaj](#): > > Passive voice is not liked by Akaj because sentences which were written in that voice are the cause of boredom in readers. **I** don’t like passive voice because it obscures the ACTOR, the DOER, the ONE RESPONSIBLE, to wit: “**[Mistakes were made](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistakes_were_made)**” is an expression that is commonly used as a [rhetorical device](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_device), whereby a speaker acknowledges that a situation was handled poorly or inappropriately but seeks to evade any direct admission or accusation of responsibility by not specifying the person who made the mistakes, nor any specific act that was a mistake. * * * * * * > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > E.g. “the police were ordered by the mayor to refrain from doing anything” vs “the mayor ordered the police to refrain from doing anything” In your examples, the second sentence is a much better sentence than the first one. The subject of the first sentence is “the police.” But they are not _actors_. They don’t DO anything in that sentence. They were acted _upon_ by the mayor. Now if your sentence said, “The police did not interfere with the demonstrators because they were following the mayor’s orders…” or “The police permitted the demonstrators to continue to harass drivers because the mayor ordered them to stand down…” then you have the police behaving like subjects of sentences. Like assholes, but definitely the subjects of the sentence. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8137 "2023-02-23T23:06:16Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > **I** don’t like passive voice because it obscures the ACTOR, the DOER, the ONE RESPONSIBLE, to wit: “**[Mistakes were made](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistakes_were_made)**” My usual response to that is, “And the passive voice is spoken.” ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8138 "2023-02-24T00:24:31Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > There’s a bill before the Florida state legislature making freedom of the press a thing of the past. > [SILENCED: Florida bill would severely limit criticism of government](https://washingtonpress.com/2023/02/22/silenced-florida-bill-would-severely-limit-criticism-of-government) > [@bill statement of intent](#): > > … that a public figure does not need to show actual malice to prevail in a defamation action in certain circumstances; How can it be defamation without malice? Does this outlaw satire? [text of measure](https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/991/BillText/Filed/PDF) ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8139 "2023-02-24T01:53:38Z")
> ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8140 "2023-02-24T02:27:17Z")
I swear that’s the second time I’ve heard “per capita” used like that in the last week or so. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8141 "2023-02-24T02:36:04Z")
This is from October, but this is the first time I saw it. And it’s from Breitbart, so don’t click if you don’t want to give them views. According to them, the left tricked the right into not taking vaccinations intentionally to kill them. > **[Nolte: Study Shows Democrat Campaign to Kill Unvaccinated Republicans Worked](https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/10/21/nolte-study-shows-dem-campaign-kill-unvaccinated-republicans-worked/)** > > A new study shows that the left's campaign to kill unvaccinated Republicans worked, John Nolte contends. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8142 "2023-02-24T02:40:11Z")
Margarine Failure Groane says that 75% of the world’s population has illegally immigrated into the US in the last two years. (She deleted and re-posted the original tweet, but screenshots are forever.) > ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8143 "2023-02-24T03:02:44Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > copy editing is a lost skill, It’s more of an abandoned one. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8144 "2023-02-24T03:05:33Z")
I thought the right was convinced (a) COVID is a hoax, and (b) the vaccines are dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8145 "2023-02-24T03:28:58Z")
They sure do here in MAGA country. I’ve taken up Tai-chi and the classes are indoors for now. Tai-chi involves a lot of stretching and reaching motions, so you need a lot of room to be able to get a good workout. I’ve let it be known that not only have I had 5 COVID jabs, I’ve also had got my flu shot AND shingles shots last year. As a result, there are only two other people who are willing to work out in my side of the room, the other 10-12 are all crowded together in the other side of the room to avoid any possible vaccine shed or whatever is going on in their little pea-sized brains. I’m just fine with that and I hope their behavior keeps up when we are able to move outside. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2023, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018/8146 "2023-02-24T03:47:57Z")
To think what they’d do if you coughed (with covered mouth, turned away) within, say, 20 feet of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018.md?page=406) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-2/959018.md?page=408)