The yelling fire example is especially nonsensical because that's not a thing that ever actually happens. Maybe this idiom made sense 100 years ago, before auto

The yelling fire example is especially nonsensical because that's not a thing that ever actually happens. Maybe this idiom made sense 100 years ago, before automated fire alarms, but today it's an anachronism. The only time it comes up is when someone is arguing against free speech. If we interpret this expression metaphorically rather than literally, then curiously it would most directly apply to people claiming COVID is dangerous and everyone needs to run out of the building (economy) and then wait for government assistance. If there is in fact no fire, as more and more data implies, then it's the people claiming there's a killer virus on the loose who are crying fire and should - by this logic - be suppressed, with people saying "it's all clear" being the ones who get amplified.