Roasting Powerful Men Is Not Just a Hobby, It’s a Public Service

Making tyrants cry is my love language.

If you’ve been reading this newsletter, you might have noticed that I’ve been publicly humiliating powerful men a lot lately. And maybe you thought, Wow, Liz is really going through it. And honestly? You’re not wrong. I think January gave me brain damage?? But here’s the thing, I’m being an insufferable bitch not just because I’m pissed. I’m being one because it’s strategic.

I was blocked by Donald Trump on Twitter in 2017. I don’t just piss off powerful men, I know how to live under their skin, rent-free. And right now, that’s not just a hobby. It’s a game plan.

Before we get into our battle plan, let’s address the elephant in the room: you might be feeling overwhelmed right now. It might feel like nothing you do will ever matter. Like we’re watching a slow-moving coup unfold in real time, led by Elon Trump (not a typo). Planes are literally exploding in the sky. It’s horrifying. It feels like the walls are closing in, the bad guys are winning, and every day delivers another gut punch, reminding us just how fragile democracy really is. I totally get it.

But, let’s get one thing straight: history has handed us an effective strategy that has worked every single time against guys like this. And I’m going to tell you exactly what you can do right now. Because you do have power, more than you think.

Start mocking powerful men. Make it personal. Make it humiliating.

Because here’s what they fear the most: not being taken seriously.

I love a solid strategy so I’m calling this plan The Napoleon Complex Doctrine. But please use the comments to come up with a better name!

History loves to repeat itself, and it is full of insecure men compensating for their own inadequacies. Enter Napoleon Bonaparte. Despite his military genius, his legacy is often reduced to one thing: his height. The so-called Napoleon Complex suggests that men who feel inadequate, especially physically, overcompensate through aggression, control, and an inflated sense of self-importance. Napoleon wasn’t actually short (he was about average for his time), but the myth stuck because it felt true. And more importantly, it worked. It shrank his legacy down to size.

And this is exactly how dictators start to fall.

If history has taught us anything, it’s that the quickest way to unravel a strongman is to make him look small. These men aren’t strong, they’re terrified of being seen as weak. They’re not powerful, they’re clinging to an outdated, insecure idea of power. And nothing makes an authoritarian crumble faster than the realization that people are laughing at him, not fearing him.

As I’ve been reflecting on how to show up in 2025, I think this is where we fell short. Back in 2016, we treated Trump like an unstoppable force, a looming monster we had to defeat. It was the right energy back then, but this time, we have to be smarter, because fear only feeds his power. Instead of making him bigger, we have to shrink him. Minimize his presence. Mock his insecurities. Strip away the illusion of strength that he depends on. Because the truth is, he’s not some all-powerful tyrant, he’s just another fragile man desperate to be taken seriously. And the second we stop giving him that, he loses the only power that truly matters to him.

This isn’t just a theory, it’s a battle-tested strategy.

Just look at Trump’s vision board for 2025: Hitler. The Allies understood that satire and ridicule weren’t just entertainment, they were psychological warfare. They dismantled the Nazi illusion of strength, not just with military force, but by making Hitler a joke.

In 1942, the British Ministry of Information released Lambeth Walk – Nazi Style, a short film that re-edited footage from Triumph of the Will to make it look like Hitler and his troops were dancing to a popular song. Goebbels, the minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich, was reportedly so enraged that he stormed out of the screening room. One little remix, and the Nazi propaganda machine lost its mind.

In the U.S., Warner Brothers created satirical cartoons exaggerating Hitler’s mannerisms, making him look absurd and weak. British troops and civilians sang Hitler Has Only Got One Ball—a song mocking his masculinity that became so widespread it permanently attached itself to his legacy. Even today, historians still write about whether or not Hitler actually had a medical condition that left him with one undescended testicle. The fact that we’re still talking about it tells you everything.

By the time Hitler died in a bunker, he wasn’t the fearsome dictator he once was. He was a joke. His power wasn’t just destroyed on the battlefield, it was dismantled by ridicule, humiliation, and the slow erosion of his carefully curated strongman image.

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Now, let’s talk about Trump.

Trump has real power, there’s no denying that. And I’m not saying that isn’t real. But what Trump fears most isn’t losing an election or a lawsuit; it’s losing face. Because power isn’t just something you take, it’s something people give you. And the power Trump craves most isn’t political; it’s cultural, the perception that he’s in control and that he’s admired. Remember, this is a man who got in trouble with the IRS for writing off ungodly amounts of money on his hair. This is a man who’s about to turn 80 and still consistently gets spray tans!! What you think of him matters to him, a lot. The perception you have of him matters more to him than the actual power he has. And that means you hold power over him. He needs your fear, your respect, your attention to survive. Stop giving it to him, and he loses the only thing that truly matters to him. His image.

In other words, Trump’s entire persona depends on us believing in it, which means we hold the power to dismantle it.

Authoritarianism is just a coping mechanism for fragile men.

And keep this in mind: Trump’s fatal flaw isn’t that he wants power. It’s that he wants to look powerful more than he wants to be powerful. He never actually wanted to be president. He wanted to play president, like it was a role on TV. That’s why he’s ranting about DEI instead of responding to the deadliest plane crash since 9/11. Why he staged photo ops with a Bible instead of leading in a crisis. Why he throws tantrums over podcast hosts but shrugs off actual policy failures.

In other words, his entire persona depends on us believing in it. Without that, he’s just the guy who accidentally became important at work and doesn’t actually care about the job. The proof is in the pudding: most of what he tried to do in his first two weeks in office didn’t even work. His spending freeze? Blocked. His birthright citizenship stunt? Not gonna happen. It’s all theater to convince us that he’s more powerful than he actually is (and feels inside).

For Trump, power isn’t about governing. It’s about performing. And that’s exactly where we have the advantage. He’s more interested in the image than the impact, and that’s how we take him down. The power he craves most isn’t the kind written into law. It’s the kind that makes him feel important. The second we stop playing along, he loses the only thing that truly matters to him, his image. And when that crumbles, so does he.

Illusions only work if people fall for them. And we don’t have to.

This means that mockery isn’t just cathartic; it’s strategic. When people stop fearing their oppressors and start laughing at them, the myth of their power begins to crumble.

So no, I haven’t been roasting these guys for fun (though it is fun). I’m doing it because stripping them of their self-appointed gravitas is how we win and how we make them cry. Power thrives on fear and respect. And we have the ability to take that away from them.

So let’s not just criticize Trump. Let’s emasculate him. The formula is simple: Mock the absurdity, highlight the contradictions, and remind them that nothing enrages a dictator more than being laughed at.

Because if there’s one thing we know for sure: fascists hate being laughed at. So let’s make them a joke.