…but if he self-identifies as one who is wearing clothes, then he is. Who am I, or anyone else, to say that he is not wearing clothes?
Because, dear reader, he is actually, factually not wearing clothes. They are not there. That is reality. And I stand with that little boy who did not give in to peer pressure, nor to political correctness, and shouted out the plain truth: the emperor was not wearing clothes. He was deceived.
When we self-identify with something that is not reality, it is nonsense. None sense. And we hurt ourselves. When we support others’ delusions we are not helping them. That is, we are helping them hurt themselves.
A person suffering with anorexia self-identifies as an overweight person, and starves him/herself. If we just leave this person in their delusion, supporting their identity as an overweight person, and don’t step in to try to get them help, we do them a great wrong.
When I was a child, from the age of nine to eleven years old, my best friend was a girl newly arrived from Japan. I wanted to be Japanese. I thought, “When I grow up, I will dye my hair black, get contacts to make my eyes dark brown, become fluent in Japanese, and I will be Japanese. If it was 2016, I would have “self-identified” as Japanese. And people would be told to support me in this. But the truth is, I was and am not Japanese. I am Jewish. And when I got over my wannabe-Japanese phase, and embraced who I am, that was the healthy, sane thing to do. I am fulfilled in being who I actually am – a Jewish woman.
Supporting humans in their wannabe delusions, whether they are people wanting to be cats, thin people thinking they are fat, or girls wanting to be boys, is not helpful.
Living in reality and helping others to do so is the kindest, most loving thing we can do.
When the emperor is walking around in his underwear believing he has clothes on, rather than perpetuating his delusion, those around him should kindly, gently, lovingly help him to see that he is unclothed, and get him something to wear.
