[jjblue1]

As far as I'm involved I agree with the others on the fact that Umineko supports escapism vs. accepting reality.

Why?

Each time we're shown a character who's using escapism, we're also shown his condition is pityful and would be worse without it.
This is pretty fair and normal and psychologically acceptable.

Maria using it to deal with her mother's abuse, Ange using it to deal with bullism, Yasu using it to deal with the mess that her life is, Eva using it as a teenager to find emotional support in a maschilist environment (and possibly as a way to shift the blame if she's guilty of something in EP 3), Natsuhi also as a way to find support in her loneliness... really, they're all ways to deal with a pain/situation that could be too big for them to handle, especially for Maria, Yasu, Ange and teen Eva who're pretty young.

If Umineko were to stop here I would say it's 'politically correct and making a fair point'.

But Umineko doesn't stop here.

First we've Erika. She accepted the 'reality' (her boyfriend cheated on her).
What Umineko tells us about it?

First, it seems to imply Erika gained part of her twisted personality due to it (this experience is what pushed her to challenge poor Mari and shatter her belief in magic).

Second, it questions if Erika's 'truth' was really that true (Dlanor says although Erika was likely right in saying her boyfriend cheated on her... well she couldn't deny the possibility her boyfriend still loved her [I won't go into the debate on wherever a boyfriend cheating you and therefore making you suffer might still be loving you after all... -_-])

Third, Erika's life didn't improve when she accepted the 'truth/reality'. She's alone, she has a twisted and unlikable personality, she ends up as Bern's pawn, her goals are hollow. Maybe she would have been like this even if she still had a boyfriend but since Umineko implies she became like this due to the loss of her boyfriend we draw the conclusion that if she had used escapism to ignore her boyfriend's betrayal maybe she'll be a better/happier person. Mind you, we can't prove it but that's the conclusion the story seems to imply.

In short, for Erika accepting the truth/reality was bad.

Let's move to someone else.

Ange. Ange is presented a choice, if to chose magic or not.
In case she doesn't what happens to her?

She possibly survives by killing Amakusa and the captain without secure proofs they were aiming to harm her. On another side she's on a ship she likely doesn't know how to drive and she's seeing Erika so it's possible she's gone nut or that committing a murder forced her to hide in escapism ANYWAY as a way to cope with it.
This can be viewed as opposed to EP 4, in which she's likely killed, her fictional friends unable to save her... however EP 4 Ange is shown to be toying with the idea of suicide and somehow dies with peace of mind as she seems to settle her unfinished business.

What if she choses magic? She survives anyway, without committing murder, supported by Okiura, living a more or less normal life, becoming a successful writer and even meeting Battler.

Either ways, chosing magic in Ep 4 or 8 will make Ange happier and mentally healtheir than not chosing it.

Also apparently discovering the truth about herself did to Yasu more harm than good.

Basically, we're shown the only way to cope with the unpleasant truth in a positive way is either to hide or reject it, not to deal with it in fact:

Ange apparently chose to stop searching for the truth, rejecting the truth of the book and believing in her own.

Battler, as soon as he discover the truth, realize the truth is BAD, switch position and decides to hide it.

Toya wants to reject the truth he was Battler and accepts it only out of guilt toward Ange. However, from what people said, he still doesn't want to be 'Battler'

Now let's move to the characters who wants to cover the truth with lies.

They are all presented as people wanting to do it in order to protect someone.
Krauss hid Kinzo's death in order to protect his family from financial disaster.
Eva hid truth in order to protect Ange.
Genji hid the truth about Yasu being alive in order to protect her and so on (sure they also have some personal gaim but the empashis is put on PROTECTION in the story not in PERSONAL GAIN).

What about the characters who wants the truth?

The goats want it for their own sick curiosity.
Erika also isn't pushed by nice motivation.
Featherine seems to have a gentler type of curiosity than the goats but still she's careless of hurting others.
The siblings want to know the truth about Kinzo's death... because they want inheritance. None of them seem sorry/worried about their father's demise.
Bern is apparently the worst. Oh, she says she showed Ange the worst truth just to see if she was strong enought to handle an unpleasant truth but considering how bad she's portrayed it seems some sort of excuse. Destrying Lion so as to prove to Yasu she also shouldn't hold any hope for a happy ending... well, although it could stop her from hiding in this new fantasy doesn't really look like it was done in the gentler way.
Ange might have been the best, as not knowing does her personal harm, however it's also implied she's not really searching THE TRUTH but a way to put the blame solely on Eva so as to remove suspicions from her parents and she's also shown to reject theories that go on Eva's defence, although, to Ange's credit, she tried to consider her but, for most of EP 8, she just rejects the idea her family can be guilty and wants to find a truth that will please her and who cares if this might mean to frame innocent Eva. She becomes no better than Erika in Ep 5... although she has better reasons for being as such and she makes efforts to redeem herself.

In short we're presented with a vision in which whoever searches the truth does it due to personal malice, ill curiosity or personal gain and who finds the truth always think it does more harm than good and, if he wants to deal with it positively, have to hide/reject it.

Now, if we were having a debate about realism vs escapism, in which the point of escapism needed to be supported because too many works were supporting realism, Umineko would have its reason to be in supporting it.
Maybe in Japan there's such culture that denies escapism or a huge amount of books that goes against it and it could be reasonable to write a novel that support it because escapism ISN'T ALL BAD.

It's a way for the mind to cope with a pain that's too huge without being damaged too much. It can help.

However, if Umineko is put out of such context, in it there's a clear unbalance in favour of escapism. Umineko advocates escapism against accepting reality and, as absolute concept, this wouldn't be a healthy way to deal with life either.

Umineko only vaguely brushed this point in Ep 4 when Ange's immaginary friends are proved to be too little of a confort and of a protection to shield her from emotional abuse and real bullets... though this point is soon covered up by Ange chosing to allow the seven sisters to live and tag along with her (she didn't simply just accept Maria had imaginary friends... she dragged them along with her, returning to be a person with imaginary friends) and by not making clear she died (actually it seems the seven sister protected her when it was all her fantasy and it was Amakusa who shot the other guys...)