"Sailing off into the wild blue yonder and making up stuff like 282RA [...]is a bit silly. There are real things to worry about, no need for fantasies and exaggeration."

Hmmm. I don't agree. He/She's not using some illogical device -- he's merely asking a person to imagine how far up or down the scale you'd be willing to allow a culture, separate from one's own, to dictate how they must live their life.

Simili, metaphor, analogy, allegory bother you that much, huh? Isn't "Sailing off into the wild blue yonder" exactly the same thing your asking others to stop?

Unless someone is clearly using logical fallacy to make a point, isn't it better to argue a point rather than tell someone else how they're not doing it right?