Following on from this, there’s another difference that I think completely kills the analogy: the Britons would be readily willing to acknowledge their response to salmon pictures as a flaw in their own mental structure. The offended Muslims, on the other hand, feel not only pain but the impression that they are healthy and justified in feeling that pain. This is equivalent to the difference between an agoraphobic who protests being dragged outside against their will, and one who insists that that the rest of human civilization moves underground for their personal convenience.
Following on from this, there’s another difference that I think completely kills the analogy: the Britons would be readily willing to acknowledge their response to salmon pictures as a flaw in their own mental structure. The offended Muslims, on the other hand, feel not only pain but the impression that they are healthy and justified in feeling that pain. This is equivalent to the difference between an agoraphobic who protests being dragged outside against their will, and one who insists that that the rest of human civilization moves underground for their personal convenience.