[Haskell-cafe] Type family weirdness

[David Feuer]

If I have

{-# LANGUAGE PolyKinds, TypeFamilies #-}
import Data.Type.Coercion

type family X :: k

and I want

coercionXX :: Coercion X X,

the obvious thing,

coercionXX = Coercion,

doesn't work:

   Couldn't match representation of type ‘X’ with that of ‘X’
    NB: ‘X’ is a type function, and may not be injective
    Relevant role signatures: type role X nominal
    Relevant bindings include
      coercionXX :: Coercion X X (bound at Fold.hs:167:1)
    In the expression: Coercion
    In an equation for ‘coercionXX’: coercionXX = Coercion

However, if I write

coercionXX = x where x = Coercion,

that does work! What gives?