There are a lot of opinions I’ll likely have until I die, but comparatively few that I’m willing to die for.
You know it’s a figure of speech, right? Sometimes you have to figure out when you can retreat from a position and when it’s too important to cede ground.
A hill I’m willing to die on is a position you can’t or won’t surrender regardless of what you must face to hold it.
As metaphors go, it’s one of the better ones.
Indeed. Similar to “picking ones battles” or so.
I used it the other day when a kid on my bus buckled the extra 5th point harness on himself that can’t be taken off without assistance, which he doesn’t require, and I warned him if he puts it on I won’t take it off until the destination. He tried bargaining, but I told him I’ll die on this hill. He’s only 5, but he got that it wasn’t going to do anything other than what I said. Also, I know for a fact all he’s going to do if I take it off is immediately put it back on. And it can’t harm him, it’s just an extra strap on a harness.
I just had to look up what a 5th point harness was, we didn’t have seatbelts on school buses most of the time. If we did, they were usually one strap that covered the entire bench for multiple people.
How are you guys supposed to hit your head on the roof going over a speed bump with harnesses like that?
So weird, someone just told me I was willing to die on a hill for my opinion when they were getting downvoted to oblivion for their opinion, and holding to it.
I.e., figuratively, they were on their hill taking shots from all sides, unwilling to yield, and yelling down to me - with my similarly opinioned compatriots - that I was willing to die on my hill. It was so bizarre and I was thinking about how they didn’t understand the meaning of the phrase, and then I came across this post.
This may not be the case here, but idioms like this can sound particularly weird when they’re in a language that isn’t your first language. This one doesn’t sound weird to me except when used in the wrong way lol.
So just to be clear, the phrase isn’t just about having differing opinions, nor actually putting your life on the line. It is about steadfastly holding to an unpopular (currently, or in the immediate context) opinion in the face of adversity. The more unpopular it is, the bigger the hill it seems to be, with fewer people defending it. In the military context the idiom derives from, hills were strategic goals and holding hills gave advantages. The harder a hill was to defend and hold, the more willing you needed to be to die to defend it (literally). In the idiomatic sense, “dying” might be more like getting yelled at from all sides - or downvoted in a huge way…
You said you have a few opinions you would be willing to die for. That’s probably a bit more extreme than this phrase is intended for.
when they were getting downvoted to oblivion for their opinion, and holding to it.
As one should. Downvote is not a counter-argument. A single thoughtfully written response is infinitely more likely to make me change my view than endless downvotes are. Objectively true statements are being “downvoted to oblivion” here on a daily basis.
Quite a few idioms like ‘You dodged a bullet’ or ‘I’m laying low.’ have originated from military in general.
That opinion is a weird hill to die on.
Maybe not die for, but you’ll keep them till the day you die.
