Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Two Phrases I See Used a Lot, with Related Questions

I come across each of these two phrases at least once a day in op-eds, political speeches, etc.

Phrase 1: "[insert person or entity here] is out of control."

Phrase 2: "[insert person or entity here] needs to be held accountable."

Question 1: Out of whose control?

Question 2: Accountable to whom?

A third question, in any given instance, is why X being out of the control of, or not accountable to, Y is necessarily a bad thing, as the normal usages seem to assume.

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