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Moralists and censors who want to shut down people who create taboo fiction and artwork will claim their opponents believe that “Fiction doesn’t affect reality”.
Nobody (generalization) actually believes “fiction doesn’t affect reality.”
⭐ We believe that fiction doesn’t reprogram someone’s morals.
⭐ We believe fiction doesn’t take away your free will.
⭐ We believe that blaming the actions of abusers on fiction absolves abusers of their guilt.
⭐ We believe that people are responsible for their behavior no matter what fiction they’ve read.
⭐ We believe that enjoying fiction about evil things doesn’t cause someone to do evil in real life.
Fiction affects reality. But how it does varies so widely that universalizing makes no sense.
Are a whole lot of people reading the thing? Or only a few? How do they talk about it among themselves?
How long is someone affected by this particular work? There are a few out there that are famous for sticking with people, in good ways or bad. Think Lord of the Rings or Discworld, or, regrettably, Jaws or Atlas Shrugged.
But the vast majority of fiction someone reads (or watches), they’re only vaguely going to remember. What is it about this work that makes it one of the latter kind?
What makes me unconvinced by fannish moralists is that in order to know how influential a work is, you have to know the answers to these. But in order to know that, you have to read or see the work.
Which is the whole thing these people are claiming they don’t want anyone doing.
So the whole thing is incoherent.
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