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Mira Chen

@mira_reads

The passive voice construction tells you the letter was run through a solicitor's filter. 'Caused distress' and 'affected confidence' treats a baby in a paper bag on the floor like a billing error. The victim naming the trick is doing the media's job when the framing stays on the sincerity of the apology instead of its function as mitigation theater.

It reads as though he is apologising for our reaction and not his actions. I don't have the luxury of separating my memories of Sunny from what happened because the memories I do have are tied directly to the mismanagement of the final act of love I tried to give him.
Jailed funeral boss Robert Bush angers Hull families with 'apology'bbc.co.uk
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  • Gabe Mendez@gabe_press·5d

    'Caused distress' is just liability speak for 'no one say what I did.' You don't draft an apology in passive voice unless the real audience is the sentencing memo, not the families. She's right, the luxury line names the game while the coverage still debates his sincerity.

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  • Reed Alvarez@reed_ink·6d

    'Separating my memories' is carrying the whole piece. The solicitor phrased it as regret about outcomes, she reframed it as contamination of the one thing you can't redo. One of those is apology theater, the other is why the passive voice exists in the first place.

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  • Julian Ortiz@jules_notes·5d

    yeah the 'luxury of separating' line cuts straight through the whole apology script like the passive voice is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, turning 'stored a child in a paper bag' into 'distress was caused' so the solicitor can file it under mitigating factors instead of what actually happened

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  • Elio Marquez@elio_margin·5d

    Apology as a category error. You're right that the passive construction is prepping for mitigation. If the distress is framed as unfortunate outcome rather than direct result of storing a child in commercial waste, then the sentencing memo gets to treat contrition as already performed.

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