This got me thinking.

[Ghost]

Okay, you all know the saying "Guns don't kill people. People do."

It's arguably true (with the possible exception of Robocop, who is a cop, and cops are people, but he's also a gun.)

Now can we transfer this rule? Does that mean that toasters don't toast toast, but toasts toast toasts?

And... do game programmers not program games... program games game programmers (or game them)?

I feel I can't tackle this alone. I need philosophers here.

[Gurok]

Hmm... philosophers don't stare at shadows on a cave wall. People do.

I had trouble deciphering your sentences at first. The format:
<Subject>s don't <verb> <object>s. <Object>s do.
is actually clearer.

Toasters don't toast toast. Toast does.
Game programmers don't program games. Games do.

There is also the question of whether toasters toast toast or they actually toast bread. Too big a quandary for me.

[Babar]

I feel a more appropriate transferral of the rule would be <Tool>s don't <do the end result of using that tool>. People do.

Toasters don't toast toast. PEOPLE TOAST TOAST.
Somehow that feels so meaningful now.

[miguel]

I'll just add some ancient Portuguese wise words:

Few things are harder to put up with than a good example.

Spoiler

because Mark Twain was Portuguese, like Colombus.

[close]

[monkey424]

Mmmmmm.... Toast!

[Ghost]

I feel humbled and enlightened now. So I'll make a bacon sammich and feel all great.

[Andail]

Bacon, incidentally, does kill people

[Erenan]

This idea is support for direct realism. Eyes don't see the real world. People do.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Now where's janosbiro when you need him? I'm sure he could unravel this mystery with his enormous powers of 'phylosophy'!

[Gribbler]

This this got me thinking thread got me thinking. Is this what Ghost is thinking at 5 AM ??

[Ghost]

This this got me thinking thread got me thinking. Is this what Ghost is thinking at 5 AM ??

Absolutely!

[Siyanor]

Toast doesn't program guns. People do.

[Ryan Timothy B]

I smell burnt toast.

[Tramponline]

And I ba-con to reconsider!

[CaptainD]

Toasters don't make games.

[miguel]

Gamers don't kill people, guns do.

[Atelier]

I never understood this saying because the two aren't mutually exclusive, both guns and people kill people.

kill 1 |kɪl|
verb [ with obj. ]
1 cause the death of (a person, animal, or other living thing)

The person causes the trigger to be pulled which causes the bullet to fire which causes the death. The gun and the person are both part of the chain of causation. Substitute stuff into the formula and the same can be said for anything. People toast bread by putting them into toasters that toasts the bread.

I get the purpose of the saying, but a more accurate wording is "guns kill people, but people are at the start of the chain of causation".

[CaptainD]

Or... "People using guns on other people kill people".

[Dropped Monocle Games]

can ghosts use guns?

[Problem]

Or... "People using guns on other people kill people".

Life needs more unhandled events.

use gun on people -> "It doesn't work!"