Recently, however, the rules have changed. Imagine that you’re throwing darts at a dartboard. You intend to hit certain sections and avoid others. You throw a bunch of darts and manage to hit your targets. Now, suppose that some other people come along and shift the rules of the game, changing which sections earn and lose points. In fact, they specifically make sure that your score has changed so that you lose points. Turns out that, under the new rules, you’re a bad dart player.
The Overton Window has become the Overton dartboard. Every day, people throw darts at a board—each tweet, post, and public statement is aimed at hitting a mark. And each new moral fashion offers the opportunity to change their scores.