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Look, there's nothing unusual or ironic about the use of "silver bullet" in either the top level comment or the first response. That's just how the idiom is use

Look, there's nothing unusual or ironic about the use of "silver bullet" in either the top level comment or the first response. That's just how the idiom is used. I would be curious if you could offer an example of "silver bullet" used as you're saying some people do. All the examples I can find are the the way I've been saying. For example, the top three Google News hits for "silver bullet": * Be excited about EPR, even if it’s not a silver bullet [0] * Immigration: Silver Bullet for Nursing Shortage? [1] * Offsets Are Not A Silver Bullet [2] In all of these, "silver bullet" could be replaced with "totally effective solution". That's how OP used it as well. You're saying that a "silver bullet" could mean "ineffective but seducing". If that were the case, the headlines would instead be: * Be excited about EPR, because it's not a silver bullet. * Offsets Are A Silver Bullet. I've never seen it used that way. And that's not how the OP used it or the first commenter interpreted it. It's not impossible it's used differently somewhere, if so I'd be curious to know. I know, for example, that "the point is moot" and "let's table the discussion" have opposite meanings in British and American English, for example. [0] https://www.greenbiz.com/article/be-excited-about-epr-even-if-its-not-silver-bullet https://www.greenbiz.com/article/be-excited-about-epr-even-i... [1] https://www.globest.com/2023/04/11/immigration-silver-bullet-for-nursing-shortage/?slreturn=20230315140156 https://www.globest.com/2023/04/11/immigration-silver-bullet... [3] https://eugeneweekly.com/2023/04/06/offsets-are-not-a-silver-bullet/ https://eugeneweekly.com/2023/04/06/offsets-are-not-a-silver...

mdp2021 4y ago
> ironic No, I meant that it comes to be ironic (not that it was used ironically by the poster. > It's not impossible it's used differently somewhere, if so I'd be curious to know I would gladly provide: in fact, I did check on my RSS DB before my last reply - but I had rotated it only days before, so it contained a fraction of the usual data. I only found an interesting occurrence on the National Interest, but it was ambiguous, and an ironic use on the Guardian, but again it was not exactly in the way that I meant. Let me assure you: there are authors that use directly the expression without the negative, e.g. "Populists always have silver bullets to propose". You can see that the expression makes sense: silver bullets work in tales, but this is reality. But the foremost example I have in mind does not write in English. I will check: if I can find a few references, I will post.

mdp2021 4y ago

> ironic No, I meant that it comes to be ironic (not that it was used ironically by the poster. > It's not impossible it's used differently somewhere, if so I'd be curious to know I would gladly provide: in fact, I did check on my RSS DB before my last reply - but I had rotated it only days before, so it contained a fraction of the usual data. I only found an interesting occurrence on the National Interest, but it was ambiguous, and an ironic use on the Guardian, but again it was not exactly in the way that I meant. Let me assure you: there are authors that use directly the expression without the negative, e.g. "Populists always have silver bullets to propose". You can see that the expression makes sense: silver bullets work in tales, but this is reality. But the foremost example I have in mind does not write in English. I will check: if I can find a few references, I will post.