The immediate defense for accusations of it being racist are that it cannot be since it originated in China. Because Chinese people, obviously, cannot be racist and lateral violence does not exist. Also meaning is fixed and there is only one interpretation of any given thing and that’s the original intent of the creator. That’s why the Roman salute and the swastika don’t have any fascist implications.

The easiest way to dismiss this defense is not by engaging it but by saying “You should go and find your nearest black community and use the terms they refer to eachother by to see how far this argument gets you.”

I find that one of the best ways to shut down debate perverts is to encourage them to try out these ideas they so vehemently attest to holding in the real world. At best, they shut up about it because they know they are wrong and at worst they’ll double down and keep trying to convince you that they are right and you can just brush them off and ask them to report back once they’ve enacted their ideas.

Another thing that has a similar vibe because it embraces someone’s foolishness that I’ve been using recently is, when I come across a person who is really doggedly anti-intellectual or completely detached from reality, I’ll explain why they are wrong and then tell them that this is part of the attitide/culture that is undermining the country (since it’s usually the US, although this also works for countries like the UK as well) and because I am eagerly looking forward to the country’s inevitable demise I applaud their contributions towards this effort and I encourage them to do more of it.

Basically I tell them that they are a fool, how they are a detriment to society, and that I want them to keep it up because if everyone is like them then their country is destined to collapse.

You can apply this to anything - vehemently anti-trans person? Applaud them for failing to grasp that decades of neoliberalism and class warfare from the ultra-rich are what is causing the rot at the core of the country and instead by wasting all of their energy on the culture war and on being outraged that trans people exist they are accelerating the destruction of the country. (Obviously this argument is not a Marxist one but you’ve gotta pitch things at the level the audience is at - I’d rather have a chance at them walking away from the exchange dazed and confounded, and hopefully poisoning their bigoted crusade, than to have them instantly reject what I say because they’ve identified me as a communist.) If they are anti-BLM or anti-communist or anti-tankie or whatever else, you can usually apply the same basic formula. It even works on Vaushites.