

I don’t think it having “ideological connections” makes this metaphor weaker. In fact, I think it highlights exactly why using a comparison out of left field makes the metaphor stronger. The only reason non-fundamentalist-Christians and Jews in the west have for denying the genocide in Gaza is that it has become normalised to do so. If you take a step back and think about why a white moderate “Christmas-and-Easter Christian” (or even an atheist) American, Australian, or European might have a connection to what’s going on in the Middle East…like, really think about it, there is no rational explanation. Only because others have decided to politicise it and make it a talking point and a part of political identity, do westerners end up having disproportionally strong opinions about it. It’s self-reinforcing in that way, but it’s no more rational than the Welsh Rwandan genocide denier, at its core.
Do they? Most cyclists I know do at least a bit of running.
Swimming though…even triathletes think swimmers are nuts.