Democrats have co-opted the term “big lie” to refer to former President Donald Trump‘s state of denial over his 2020 election result. But for their “big” lie, they have chosen something of only temporary and transitory importance. The fact is, elections come and go, and election denialists are everywhere, doing their little part to undermine democracy every election cycle. They are mostly laughed at and scorned by reasonable people.

There is, however, a much more profound big lie at work in modern life — that a man can become a woman by sheer force of either his will or his own delusions.