Opinion Override

• Main
• All Subpages
• Create New

I reject your opinion and insert my own. —Adam, Myth Busters

Someone broadcasts something that a White Knight for some group finds offensive. The thing is, though, the white knight in question isn't a part of the group themselves and is getting offended on the group's behalf. The people who are actually members of the group think that the "offensive" joke is Actually Pretty Funny, and say such. Or they don't even care that they're supposed to be "offended".

Cue the Periphery Demographic white knight calling said group members traitors.

There are Unfortunate Implications in this one as well: saying, for instance, that a politically correct white viewer knows what's racist better than a black viewer does, and will "defend" black people from having their own opinion on the matter if they don't agree with the white person in question.

Happens a lot in Fan Wank. Related to Straw Traitor. Definitely Truth in Television.

Please limit Real Life examples to someone White Knighting for a single person and the target not being offended.

Examples:

Literature

• Showing up in several Discworld books, the Campaign for Equal Heights is an advocacy group aiming to reduce discrimination against dwarfs. The Campaign is mostly run by humans who think that the dwarfs are being exploited, looked down on, or otherwise unfairly treated. Dwarfs themselves don't care much about what the Campaign is doing; they only want to work and send more money home.
• In the Harry Potter books, Hermione tries to free the House Elves, though most of them like their duties.

Live Action TV

• In one of The Late Show (Australia) "How to Host a Dinner Party" sketches, one of the obligatory guests is the annoyingly politically-correct guy. The sketch has him complaining about how sexist Basic Instinct was, to which one of the female guests responds that she quite enjoyed it.

Newspaper Comics

• Dilbert creator Scott Adams has taken his share of flak over the years for writing comic strips that offended people, and he noted in Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel that one of the most irritating problems he faced was White Knighting by people who weren't part of the group he was taking the piss out of. His example was that if he made a joke about clown stereotypes, he'd get a lot of angry letters from his readers, but none of them would be from actual clowns.

Web Comics

• This is Pat's entire deal in Achewood. He is never happy unless he has something politically correct to complain about, and if he has nothing in his immediate life that's wrong he'll be offended on behalf of entire other groups. He's really an insufferable ass who uses "being offended by something that should be offensive" to make himself feel superior.

Web Original

• Item #101 on the blog Stuff White People Like Lampshades this.

Western Animation

• South Park: People are up in arms over the band "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld" because (allegedly) the only reason they're popular is that people like to come to laugh at Timmy, who is in a wheelchair and can only say his name. But people are actually there to support Timmy and enjoy the music, and Timmy himself is having fun. (Phil Collins is also upset and jumps on this bandwagon, but for him it's really because TatLotU are more popular than he is.)
  • In another episode, the kids in South Park have taken to using the word "fag" as a such a generic insult that they've forgotten that it used to be associated with homosexuality. People become up in arms about it and try to stop it. The homosexual community in South Park actually see it as a good thing that they've been dissociated from the insult and try to encourage it.

Real Life

• Gary Larson got one of these cases on his hands when he drew a comic about Jane Goodall: A female chimp finds a blond hair in her mate's fur and accuses him of having helped 'that Jane Goodall tramp' with some 'research'. Shortly after publishing it, he got a cease-and-desist from someone claiming to represent Jane Goodall, expressing outrage at the implications of bestiality, the reference to her as a 'tramp', etc. Gary, who states that he has nothing but respect for Goodall's work, dutifully pulled the comic, but a while later, he got a letter from a scientific journal that wanted to use that comic for an article about Jane Goodall, and when he told them that he couldn't due to the C&D, they were mystified. The editor knew Jane, and stated that it didn't sound like her at all. A few phone calls later, it turns out that Jane Goodall herself thought the comic was hilarious, and she didn't know anything about a cease-and-desist. The comic was restored to its rightful place, including being used for the aforementioned article, but nobody ever found out who decided to complain to Gary on Jane's behalf, without bothering to tell her...
• Before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Spanish Olympic team sent a picture of themselves pulling their eyes sideways to make themselves appear "Chinese". Government officials across the West complained about the Spanish team's lack of political correctness. When informed, the Chinese couldn't understand why this was an issue.