"For future reference, when I ask for clarification, I'm asking for details. Analogies hide more than they reveal."

A pause, and, because he's still smarting from that particular choice of analogy, he adds pleasantly, "Even if you were to think of good ones."

But, that said, he takes a breath, focusing more thoughtfully on the situation Erik is describing.

"I don't think it's wrong to defend others," he says at last, slowly. "Even if it means you are the first to use violence. But the less direct the threat is, the more cautious you should be.

"It's too easy, otherwise, to say things like - oh - 'anyone who isn't also fighting is my enemy.'"

He should know. He's made that mistake himself, in a very hands-on way.