Logan

because it's really meant to be sort of the baby beginner step to media literacy but in fandom spaces it usually acts like a trump card to shut down critical discussions. it's one of the thought terminating cliches of fandom that discourages learning how to interrogate the text beyond "fiction isn't reality, dummy".

yes, the popular whump fic in your fandom isn't endorsing torture, but also, can you tell when the canon for your fandom is endorsing a message? how do you then choose to interact with that canon, and do you get defensive when people are critical of the source material?

depiction isn't endorsement, but can you tell when fandom trends are misogynistic or racist? can you see how killing off a black female character to "punish" her in fanfiction with the framing that she deserves it, and the popular narrative in a certain fandom that a heroic black man is a possessive liar and a white villain is a good man deserving redemption, is endorsing a message in fanfic? do you argue that it's "just fiction" when people get very understandably upset at misogyny and racism in fandom spaces?

yeah, depiction isn't endorsement, but do you think this is where it starts and stops as the only thing you really need to know? do you think people who are critical of things aren't engaging with it properly, or being mean, because they've forgotten the golden fandom rule of "fiction isn't reality"?

nbc hannibal isn't endorsing cannibalism as a dietary choice, but top gun maverick and call of duty: modern warfare were quite literally sponsored by the us military as propaganda for recruitment.