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Notes -
Let's say I'm making an argument, and the other person doesn't understand what I'm getting at. Quite often, I could use some shared reference point as an analogy to make my line of argument more clear.
Alternatively, I'm making an argument, and the other person firmly disagrees. I could use an analogy, but it usually won't be persuasive, because analogies are never perfect 1:1 matches to the original subject, and the other person can just say, "oh, your analogy is different here and that's a material difference, so your analogy is flawed and not good support for your position."
it's rare for someone to disagree, hear an analogy, and respond, "oh, I was wrong the whole time, but now I agree." If the other person was on the fence beforehand, and not committed to disagreeing? Might work.
But they don't have to be. They just have to be relevant in some way to be convincing.
Obviously the interlocutor can just say "but apples aren't LITERALLY orange, checkmate republikkan", but they can do that for any argument that isn't an analogy.
Yeah, but that's also true for non-analogy arguments. Analogies and similar things are plenty useful in persuading people who firmly disagree, but it's generally hard to do so.
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