"Responsible" is a highly overloaded word, but if nothing else it's a call for writers to be cautious in how they present things.
I'm working on a story with a (mostly) sympathetic protagonist who does some awful things and ultimately undergoes moral meltdown. One of my beta readers pointed out that my ending, bleak as it was, sort of rewarded the protagonist by giving her catharsis and some vindication, if not an actual happy ending. I took that as the top priority from that round of feedback and made sure to tweak the framing.
Did I succeed? Maybe. Can I absolutely prevent people from taking the wrong message? No. But I can try, and at least cut off the obvious routes to misinterpretation, learning from previous examples (Fight Club is actually not too far off in spirit). I think this is a moral responsibility of anyone making art, especially stories, for consumption by others: you at least have to try, where "try" includes a good faith effort to learn from common mistakes.
I'm working on a story with a (mostly) sympathetic protagonist who does some awful things and ultimately undergoes moral meltdown. One of my beta readers pointed out that my ending, bleak as it was, sort of rewarded the protagonist by giving her catharsis and some vindication, if not an actual happy ending. I took that as the top priority from that round of feedback and made sure to tweak the framing.
Did I succeed? Maybe. Can I absolutely prevent people from taking the wrong message? No. But I can try, and at least cut off the obvious routes to misinterpretation, learning from previous examples (Fight Club is actually not too far off in spirit). I think this is a moral responsibility of anyone making art, especially stories, for consumption by others: you at least have to try, where "try" includes a good faith effort to learn from common mistakes.