These are great! I love metaphorical thinking as a route to critical thinking. A few I use:
Break the Lever - Based on the philosophical trolley problem, it’s questioning the system that is positing a supposed dichotomy of choices rather than choosing, i.e. saying “why do we need the lesser of two evils? how can we instead untie the people from the tracks?”
“You Could Be that Cop” - This is part of a longer quote by James Baldwin: “What you’ve got to remember is what you’re looking at is also you. Everyone you’re looking at is also you. You could be that person. You could be that monster, you could be that cop. And you have to decide, in yourself, not to be.” I’m a high school teacher, so it’s mostly an internal framework to break/bend rules as needed to avoid reproducing carceral structures as much as possible.
Maybe they need to shit/Unconditional Positive Regard - This is a “real” mental framework founded in a lot of theorists, but the “maybe they gotta shit” framing comes from explaining this concept to a friend, in which I explained that when I see someone doing something seemingly unexplainably stupid/evil on the highway, I stop the “ugh what an asshole!” and try to think: what would make a rational, well intentioned person act this way? And well… when I have to shit really bad, I’m sure I drive in some wild ass ways too.
Real Effect or Thought Beam? When I am spiraling into a perseverating thought, I will pause it by asking myself: can I have a real effect on this problem, or am I trying to send thought beams? The idea is questioning whether or not my energy could be spent better actually making change, or if this is something actually outside my sphere of control/influence and not worth my ruminating.
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