How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

I recently read this post Over at Mysterious Matters , a blog about publishing mystery novels. (Disclaimer: I don't have any inclination toward publishing mystery novels. I barely read mystery novels, unless you count Agatha Christie and my new-found love of Tana French. I just like reading blogs. In other words, I have no expertise or qualifications to discuss what I am about to say, but I figure why should this topic be any different from anything else I talk about here? ) The post describes the publishers' reaction to a recent submission that they liked, but had some issues with, one of them being that the villain was a Muslim with ties to terrorism. It then goes on to suggest that asking a writer to change the ethnicity of a villain is "respectful of our readers' expectations" in part because "Genre mystery fiction isn't reality, and it's not supposed to reflect reality. Rather, it's supposed to offer an alternative universe that's r