> Them: "Fiction isn't going to make people commit immoral things irl"? Well tell that to the great white shark population after Jaws!
> James, screaming about the shark fin soup industry:

Also, extremely normal to compare fanfic that might get 100 hits in its entire internet life - because they always mysteriously target fanfic for this shit, and not Game of Thrones or something else that actually matches a blockbuster's cultural footprint - to a hugely popular movie

Yeah those affect culture exactly the same amount

There's also a big difference between vilification of a species and someone having a kink

I just keep on thinking about the assumption that people with complex brain are gonna see x thing and think x thing is good.

Shit is much more complex than that.

it's always fucking jaws because they only know fucking pop news examples

Also this argument is always about fanfiction writers or people that draw shit on their own time, or small web comic people. why is that?

it's always about the horror movies too, when the conversation subject tends to be about sexy fic

> "But the Jaws Effect, and the Slenderman Stabbings, and the Scream copycat murders!"
> .....So do you want to get rid of the horror genre....?
> "[fucking crickets]"

also idk it's much harder to make people think weird or bad thing is good, I should do that than to work scared masses up into a frothing mess of pitchforks and torches and make them want to "defend themselves"

Because they don't have the power to attack the big creators meaningfully (unless those creators and stories are marginalized enough, see: SU Criticals), so they treat them like they "get a pass," but if someone they can ruin writes something Bad, watch out.

yep.

at this point I am going to refuse to consider anyone trying to argue that reading fiction directly causes bad behavior if they aren't at least citing Bandura's Bobo doll experiments, I will still make fun of them because Bandura was working with preschoolers but at least citing him means the have read things instead of just being a conservative parrot

Like there's no faith in the audience to tell fantasy from reality. and like... that's concerning.

it's not good for anyone. the audience, the creator, the culture around these things.

also it's damn insulting, I'm an adult with a job, why are you assuming I have the cognitive abilities of a 6 year old?

and once again, it's mostly focused towards things created by women, queer people, and oppressed people in general

like square up with with dude bros that cannot tell entertainment made for them from reality if you about that life. but they aren't.

at least, one of the kids in the Slenderman Stabbings was seriously mentally ill. I think she was diagnosed with schizophrenia? and I think both of them were from troubled homes. That had less to do with Slenderman existing and more to do with a lack of adequate care from what I recall of the details.

but the people who tend to use this as an argument don't seem to actually know anything about the actual case.

penbee: 'it's much harder to make people think weird or bad thing is good, I should do that than to work scared masses up into a frothing mess of pitchforks and torches and make them want to "defend themselves"'

that's so true and so important to keep in mind

and I'm pretty sure the Scream copycat murders were similar. There's always extensive context that gets left out in these arguments. I remember learning about one where one of the guys already had a history of red flag behavior.

both kids for the slenderman case got "not guilty by nature of insanity" and one immediately realized what she did was terrible after getting proper treatment after the trials, and Scream outright calls out folks who blame movies for people being "psychos"

none of you mf'ers are any different from the Tipper Gores or Jack Thompsons of the world, hell at least they attacked people/organizations with power and clout.

like this is equivalent of harassing your neighbor because you don't like the books in their house.

rag_dog_witch Oh, yeah, I remember now. I just couldn't remember if both of them did or not. I definitely remember one of them realizing the terrible thing she did after she finally got the treatment she needed. And re: Scream, absolutely. None of the killers are ever held up as a standard of something to be aspired to.