People think they already know what that means, so it won’t signal ‘stop! new idea incoming!’ And it’s losing its status as metaphor, in the same way ‘that’s the way the cookie crumbles’ is no longer a vivid, attention-grabbing comparison to mentally simulated baked goods.
How about “politics is a minefield”?
I see that shminux & Yvain have already used that phrase in their comments.
People think they already know what that means, so it won’t signal ‘stop! new idea incoming!’ And it’s losing its status as metaphor, in the same way ‘that’s the way the cookie crumbles’ is no longer a vivid, attention-grabbing comparison to mentally simulated baked goods.
That sounds like a pretty good compromise.