coffeeshiro:

shitcoursechef:

i’ve seen a lot of people using the 2014 slender man stabbing to support their claims that fiction affects reality, especially in the voltron fandom. to those who don’t know, the slender man stabbing was when two girls, anissa weier and morgan geyser who were both 12 years old at the time, lured their friend and classmate payton leutner (also 12) into a forest and then stabbed her 19 times in the chest. they goal was to sacrifice their friend to slender man and prove themselves worthy. fortunately, payton was able to crawl her way out to the road and was rushed to the hospital. she survived the attack and has since made a full recovery. while on the surface this appears to be a very solid piece of evidence, people often forget a few key points about the case:

anissa weier has been diagnosed as mentally ill (childhood onset schizophrenia and oppositional defiance disorder) and was deemed not responsible for her actions during the attack. the jury found anissa not guilty to her charges of second degree attempted homicide because she was mentally impaired, however it is important to note that she also knew that what she was doing was wrong. instead of prison time, anissa will be receiving mental health care for at least 3 years before petitioning for release.



morgan geyser’s own trial started on october 9th. she has pleaded guilty to her charges of intentional attempted murder as part of a plea deal. in the deal morgan pleas guilty in exchange for not being held criminally responsible on account of mental illness.



when the attack occurred all three girls were only 12 years old. according to piaget (he’s a child psychologist and a very smart guy i suggest looking into him) children only begin to start thinking from the perspective of others and about how their consequences affect them.



psychologists have stated the girls suffered from a shared delusion disorder brought on in their fascination with the paranormal.



more sources:

psychology today article. states that while it is easier to blame slender man, there are cognitive and psychological factors that must be taken into account.





news article that says both girls suffered from a ‘shared delusion’ according to a psychologist.





news story about how age affects delinquent behavior: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3943187&page=1





news articles about the case:



http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/07/us/slenderman-teen-guilty-plea/index.html







http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41292913







https://www.cbsnews.com/news/slender-man-anissa-weier-verdict/





https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2643061/slender-man-stabbing-case-anissa-weier-morgan-geyser-payton-leutner/ these are real psychologists saying that neither morgan nor anissa was 100% mentally capable at the time of the attack. it is not just ableism deflecting responsibility of horrible actions away from neurotypicals, no psychologist has ever supported that a 100% mentally sound individual is capable of committing murder at such a young age (these girls were TWELVE years old), especially to please a fictional character.

if anything, this case proves that fiction only affects the very young and mentally ill… not full grown adults and teenagers. please find another legal case to use and read up on this article about how fiction doesn’t effect reality by david gauntlet.



I’d like to emphasize that, in case antis read this and try to use it to validate that younger people will see bad content and want to emulate it, it comes down to the parents and the individuals. It’s the parents job to teach the kid the difference between fiction and reality, and the vast majority of people have no problem doing so. In this case, the girls were mentally ill and delusional, and that’s why they believed the slenderman was real or that sacrificing their friend was a good idea.

If a kid sees bad behavior in fiction and emulates it, it is the parent’s duty to inform the kid that the behavior is wrong. When I was 10 and younger I intentionally sought out problematic material because I found it interesting - I had no problem separating fiction from reality, and when I saw something that scared me, like the dozens of times I was taught internet safety both in school and by my parents, I went to my parents about it.

It’s important to teach kids how to separate fiction from reality and also how to avoid content that makes them uncomfortable online. Instead, antis often preach that fiction is reality or at least strongly affects it to the point where it cannot be avoided, as well as not try to avoid or to actively seek out content that makes them uncomfortable and encourage others to do the same. I shouldn’t need to explain why that’s awful and harmful.