Fiction is wonderful.
It allows us to create worlds of wonder, mystery and horror.
It gives us a way to allow the exploration of complex and touchy subjects, and sometimes even parallel real-life or historic issues.

However, it should always be treated as separated from reality.

Why?

The reason is simple: Because stories are just that.
Stories.
They are not real, and nothing that happens in them is real either.

Convincing yourself fictional stories and their content are real only disassociates you from reality. This is extremely dangerous.

There is of course the argument that authors need to be careful about the content of their worlds or they end up conveying "dangerous ideas" to their audience.

If the author used their work to spread their ideas and make people agree with them, we have a different issue entirely

But on the subject of the audience:
If they fail to separate fiction from reality, it is their own fault.
Their own judgement failed them.
Same applies if they get the "wrong ideas".

Authors cannot prevent this from happening.
Its not their responsibility either.

In the end, it comes down to the authors telling their stories and building their fiction as authentic and true-to-itself as possible.

And its on the readers to have the maturity to treat the stories first and foremost for what they are.

Stories.

/thread