I don't think what you term 'falsehoods' in fiction per se are harmful (more on that shortly). Falsehoods are most harmful when they're indistinguishable, or hard to distinguish, from the truth - or indeed masquerading as truth. In that sense, social media has the most potential of the things referenced above for damage via insidious falsehoods. Phenomena like self-curation, implied endorsement, groupthink, lack of nuance, social pressure to conform in public (to name a few) all cumulatively add up to an objectively skewed picture of reality, but which mos...
Female finance lawyer here. My field skews male, especially in the higher echelons/partnership level.
Few people willingly sign up to be on the vanguard, agreed. And while I don't particularly want to be on the vanguard, given that I've been at this a while and been through some things, I may as well use that experience for collective good. I mentor the hell out of younger attorneys. Like you, I've stopped sugarcoating everything. I think there's good to be done in giving other people more complete information than they would have otherwise.