Originally a comment by Nullius in Verba on You can’t turn the world upside down by forcing people to stand on their heads.

Very cathartic comment. There’s just one eensy expansion I’d add to this bit:

It’s not the “ridiculousness” of “identifying as something that you’re not” that’s the issue. It’s the fact that that it is unhealthy and dangerous to do so that is the problem.

The thing is, the ridiculousness of it is per se inherently unhealthy and dangerous. Why? Because the ridiculous identification isn’t its own, separate, isolated thing. It isn’t devoid of connection to the rest of the world, as it might be if it occurred in a literal dream. No, this identification is by its nature something that affects perceptions and actions. In other words, it’s among the premises in the logic of our daily lives. And there’s a serious problem with truly ridiculous premises: the existence of even one demolishes the entire system. No, really, admit even a single contradictory premise into your logical system, and the whole thing explodes. From the premises (i) Socrates is a man and (ii) all men are mortal, we conclude that (iii) Socrates is mortal. But if we add (iv) Rachel Levine is a woman, then ex falso quodlibet Socrates is immortal and drinking bleach is a great home remedy for constipation. (And simultaneously not a great home remedy for constipation!) Accepting the ridiculous is necessarily dangerous, because it destroys our ability to recognize danger.

It’s exactly the sort of danger that trans activists bully women and girls into accepting. Markers of possible and probable threat must be ignored, women. Repress your natural instincts for self-defense, girls. Act as if nothing is out of the ordinary when the bearded manwoman in fetish gear enters your intimate spaces. If you react at all before the actual moment of a violent attack, you prove that you’re a retrograde, transphobic bigot. You wouldn’t want to be one of them, would you? That’s a good little lady.