I could see people in the USA reflexively denying this is true because of the dramatic nature of “kill line”, but if you used the phrase, “barely keeping my head above water” or, “treading water” they would agree it’s true.
i can kinda see it, kill line evokes the idea of an action being done to you, as in “drop below this line and we’ll kill you”, whereas keeping your head above water evokes drowning, which is an action that your body does
although that falls apart when you ask “why is there water there in the first place? who put it there? why are they just letting people drown?”
I could see people in the USA reflexively denying this is true because of the dramatic nature of “kill line”, but if you used the phrase, “barely keeping my head above water” or, “treading water” they would agree it’s true.
i can kinda see it, kill line evokes the idea of an action being done to you, as in “drop below this line and we’ll kill you”, whereas keeping your head above water evokes drowning, which is an action that your body does
although that falls apart when you ask “why is there water there in the first place? who put it there? why are they just letting people drown?”