The metaphor discussion reminded me of Cat Coupling[1], “where it’s unclear whether an attribute is meant as justifiably picking out a subset, or unjustifiably describing the whole, and as a result strengthening the connection between the concept and the attribute.” E.g. “the only ones that will lose out are rich bosses”: are all bosses rich, or will the non-rich bosses excluded? Nerst argues that such a phrase leverages the ambiguity to be more powerful.
Another way the metaphor struggles is that usually we don’t disagree if it’s raining. In November, was a supermarket a high risk setting?
I would say mocking the wet people isn’t the problem. The externality of infection, mean that the pro-umbrella crowd believe they are being made wet by the non-umbrella crowd.
So the two problems with the metaphor:
The degree of rain coming down is agreed upon, community risk is not.
Pro-maskers view your choice not use an umbrella as getting them wet. (And as Zvi says, in some times and places, they are not wrong.)
The metaphor discussion reminded me of Cat Coupling[1], “where it’s unclear whether an attribute is meant as justifiably picking out a subset, or unjustifiably describing the whole, and as a result strengthening the connection between the concept and the attribute.” E.g. “the only ones that will lose out are rich bosses”: are all bosses rich, or will the non-rich bosses excluded? Nerst argues that such a phrase leverages the ambiguity to be more powerful.
Another way the metaphor struggles is that usually we don’t disagree if it’s raining. In November, was a supermarket a high risk setting?
I would say mocking the wet people isn’t the problem. The externality of infection, mean that the pro-umbrella crowd believe they are being made wet by the non-umbrella crowd.
So the two problems with the metaphor:
The degree of rain coming down is agreed upon, community risk is not.
Pro-maskers view your choice not use an umbrella as getting them wet. (And as Zvi says, in some times and places, they are not wrong.)
[1] https://everythingstudies.com/2019/10/30/cat-couplings/