It's usually done as a strategy to try to fit in, to be "one of the good ones," or sometimes just self loathing given a signal boost by chuds in the same community.
It's saddening how many people, especially trans people, call themselves d-word-popularized-by-nazis, for example. Or marginalized ethnic group members that use the very slurs that are used to justify putting people like them into camps.
It's fucked up, but I am often at a loss for how to reach those people, or if such a thing is even possible. :doomer:
EDIT: It seems this is important enough to :freeze-gamer: that alt accounts must be mustered to rage at me about it. :jokah-messy:
Contrapoints (yeah, I know) argued that the trans people on 4chan actively engage in this kind of self harm specifically because it hurts. Because calling themselves hons and other shit hurts, it makes them feel like it's real and true.
Through this roundabout way, they feel like the pain protects them because at least they aren't delusional like those other trans people.