Is the general public so fucked up that they can no longer distinguish works of fictions from reality?
Yes. This generation really does seem to be emotionally and intellectually stunted to the point that they think things they see and hear can directly compel them (and others) to do unpleasant things. Remember these are the same people who cling desperately to <current_pop_culture_property> to inform their world views. It's been about twenty years since we could have intelligent discussion about societal issues without someone comparing a complex topic to dogshit like Twilight, Harry Potter or Handmaiden's Tale.
It has a lot in common with islam and how generally stunted that is. The whole reason women are expected to dress "modestly" in public (i.e. cover up every square inch of skin, with a tiny slit allowed (begrudgingly) for vision) is that they present "too much temptation" otherwise. Muslims legitimately believe the only reason men don't just rape women all the time in public is that they simply can't see their bodies and thus can't be tempted by them. No mention why this doesn't apply in private, but then again there actually
is a sizeable about of familial rape indoors, so maybe it
is true for those savages.
In the western world that translates to idiots believing watching pornography makes men rape women (an argument I always found really odd since mainstream pornography doesn't -- and never did -- portray rape), playing "violent" video games makes people (especially kids, but now they just think it applies to everyone) violent, reading books with the word "nigger" in them makes people racist, and listening to <genre_you_don't_like> music makes you kill people. They've tried
really hard over the years to prove these things, yet study after study (even when commissioned and run by people desperately trying to prove it) has shown zero link between any of it.
i absolutely hate how it's impossible to have any reasonable discussion about suicide.
It's still got a vicious stigma attached to it, which makes people reluctant to talk about it at all and causes them to freak out if they encounter someone who's suicidal, made a (legitimate) suicide attempt in the past or was affected by someone who did. Then add in random faggots who casually threaten suicide on the daily for sympathy and attention and you've got a nasty mess.
It's doubly hard for people who are feeling suicidal; the fear of being involuntarily committed is real and a suicidal person already doesn't trust anybody, so it's difficult for them to find and reach out for help. Even suicide hotlines that claim they don't report callers to local law enforcement to "get them some help" don't actually provide more than a few minutes of conversation and then a referral to someone local -- who might end up reporting them to local law enforcement anyway.