> If you're a conductor, you can view the various members of your orchestra as "tools" to produce the ideal musical output.
I disagree, humans are the operators, tools are tools. Operators use tools. A conductor is an operator that uses a baton tool to direct other operators to produce the proper sound with their musical instrument tools.
I think calling people tools is dehumanizing if anything. The only way I know people can be a tool, is through an already existing insult.
> The only way I know people can be a tool, is through an already existing insult.
In that case, you don't know much. It's not difficult to find examples.
For instance:
Arab-Israeli travel blogger Nas Daily denies report that he is a tool of Israeli government propaganda
( https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/arab-israeli-travel-blogger-... )
As always when discussing the usage of English words, it's pleasing to look at Webster's 1913 dictionary, which helpfully includes this definition of "tool":
> A person used as an instrument by another person; -- a word of reproach; as, men of intrigue have their tools, by whose agency they accomplish their purposes.
Okay but how is it used in society? I don’t know many people who refer to Websters. Notice your Webster’s doesn’t include the insult usage.
I see your Websters and raise you Urban Dictionary:
> That guy who makes us shake our head in disbelief but at the same time makes us feel better about ourselves since we are not him.
Please consider social and modern day usage as well when discussing English words.
Also 1913? Wow.
> Notice your Webster’s doesn’t include the insult usage.
What exactly do you think
> a word of reproach
means?
righthand is right about that one. 1913 Webster's says it's a word of reproach, but the example that follows is obviously not the modern insult, which doesn't even have an instrumental sense.
Webster's dictionary currently glosses this sense of tool (n.(1)(3)(b)) as "a foolish or unlikable person : JERK".
( https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tool )