Busting out definitions, for one. "Now wait a second, I think [offensive, wrong, controversial, etc. viewpoint] doesn't fall within what you constitute as [offensive, wrong, controversial, etc.] because according to this definition I took two seconds to search on dictionary.com because I really have no further argument, [offensive, wrong, controversial] is defined as X and not [my bad opinions], so therefore I can really keep getting away with this scot-free."
One that comes up time and time again is the whole minority representation thing, too, especially as applied to playable characters over on Gaming-side. "It's not that I have anything against blacks, but I mean, how am I supposed to relate to playing as a black guy who does video gamey things such as shoot guns? I didn't grow up in the hood, man." Meanwhile they spend god-knows-how-many hours playing as wizards, sentient rubiks cubes, space lizards, whatever - the point is they seem to draw the line at playing something that would risk them coming to terms with their own insecurity and paranoia over conflicts that aren't really there. When I say conflicts that aren't there I'm talking about a minority underclass somehow undermining / oppressing the white cishet male buzz-cut 18-35 space marine protagonists, not the issue of minority under-representation itself.
Other gems for counterpoints versus ethnically fleshing out the possible spectrum of protagonists include:
- "how am i supposed to relate?"
- "is there really a market for this?"
- "a native american protagonist? that's cool and all, but there are barely any of them in america. i mean, how are us white guys supposed to be able to play this and enjoy it?"
- "i don't see color"
- extension of the above: "you can be black, white, pink, purple, Dutch, whatever - i'm cool with all colors of the rainbow"
- "i think having minority protags is missing the point of gaming. the gameplay is supposed to be enjoyable, bottom line. that's why i shelled out $2500 for this gaming rig that plays Bubble Bobble at 8K stereoscopic 3D with 256xMSAA and constantly bitch about jaggies on games i've never played!"
- "if your game has a minority represented and it's not a good game, well, what's the point?"
- "I think people are getting way too stressed out about political correctness these days, I mean god, I can't even pull rape jokes at the office if Tracy and her gal-pals are within earshot. What happened to America? And god help you if you try and stereotype the Mexicans."
- "These guys seem a little too thuggish to really identify with, you know? How am I supposed to click with a protagonist who breaks up drug deals and occasionally has to outrun the police? At least when I was killing half a million people to get Zombie Genocider I could relate to the player character."
And, what's probably the worst of them all:
"I guess I could see why people would be into it, but I just don't see the appeal of playing as a minority character." I'm talking about actively dismissing the idea of even a single game with a minority protagonist - specifically calling them out and saying you're not interested when, as an 18-35 white dude, you have roughly a quarter billion other games featuring white protags you can relate to out there.
