I recall in the past seeing people make pithy comments about how they were "safe" because of their color & Real ID & such.

This sends a crystal clear message that nobody anywhere is safe from being executed on a whim, because our government is run by fascists.

you may ask "if organizings so good, why hasn't anything changed?"

the answer is simple: so many scenes are held up by one or two people taking on a mountain of work, and they're often marginalized as fuck.

we need more people to organize. we need *you*

Conservatives see all children as property and the Wrong People's children as contraband

Same

So if activists were completely focused on respectability, why are we constantly hearing about the excesses of trans activists and how they go too far?

Because it doesn't matter if we're respectability focused or not! They'll find some rando to hold up as an example and say we're too extreme.