It started with a tweet. In 2015, Adrian Christie wrote something so perfectly cynical that it basically became the defining meme for the modern era of "I didn't think this would happen to me." The tweet was simple: "'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party."
It’s hilarious. It’s biting. Honestly, it’s a bit mean. But it’s also become a primary way people describe the phenomenon of voting for someone—or supporting a policy—that is explicitly designed to hurt people, only to be shocked when those same policies eventually hurt you.
You've seen it happen. A small business owner votes for massive deregulation, then gets crushed when a predatory corporation uses those same lack of rules to put them out of business. Or a person celebrates the cutting of "wasteful" social programs, only to realize their own disability check or local library was what the government considered "waste." This is the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party in action. It’s a metaphor for the total breakdown of the "us vs. them" mentality when the "us" realizes they were actually part of the "them" all along.
Where did this actually come from?
The 2015 tweet wasn't just a random joke. It captured a very specific vibe during the rise of populism globally. Christie, a parody writer, tapped into the collective frustration of watching people support movements that seemed, to outside observers, obviously detrimental to the supporters' own interests.
The meme blew up. It didn't just stay on Twitter (now X). It migrated. There is a massive subreddit dedicated to this exact thing, r/LeopardsAteMyFace, which has millions of subscribers. People post screenshots of news stories where someone complains about the very thing they helped make happen.
Why does it resonate? Because humans are wired for schadenfreude. There is a specific, jagged satisfaction in seeing someone experience the direct consequences of their own choices, especially when those choices were made with the intent of harming others. It’s the ultimate "I told you so."
But there’s a deeper psychological layer here. It’s not just about being "stupid." It’s about the belief in exceptionalism. People think, "The leopard won't eat my face because I’m a loyal supporter of the leopard. I’m one of the good ones. The leopard is only supposed to eat the faces of the people I don’t like."
The Psychology of the Leopard Supporter
Psychologists often look at this through the lens of "in-group" and "out-group" dynamics. When someone joins the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party, they are usually doing so because they’ve been promised that the leopard's hunger will be directed elsewhere.
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Take the 2016 and 2020 US elections, or the Brexit vote in the UK. These are the "Big Three" events that fueled the meme's growth.
In the UK, many fishing communities voted overwhelmingly for Brexit. They were told it would "take back control" of their waters. Then, the reality of trade barriers, export delays, and plummeting prices hit. They realized that the "control" they took back meant they could no longer easily sell their fish to their biggest market. The leopard ate the fishing industry's face.
Then there are the stories of immigrants who voted for hardline anti-immigration candidates, believing that "illegal" immigrants would be targeted while they, the "legal" ones, would be safe. When their own families got caught in the dragnet of increased enforcement, the shock was palpable.
It’s about the "Leopard Promise." The promise is always: "I will hurt the people you hate, and I will reward you." The reality is: "I am a leopard. I eat faces. Yours is a face."
Why logic often fails to stop the leopard
You’d think that seeing a leopard eat someone else’s face would be enough of a warning. It usually isn't.
Cognitive dissonance is a hell of a drug. When we commit to a side, our brains work overtime to ignore evidence that we’ve made a mistake. If the leopard starts nibbling on our ear, we tell ourselves it’s just a playful lick. We find someone else to blame. "The leopard didn't want to eat my face," the voter says, "the other party forced the leopard to do it!"
Political scientists often talk about "negative partisanship." This is the idea that people don't vote for things they like as much as they vote against things they hate. If you hate the "Anti-Leopard Party" enough, you will tolerate a lot of face-eating from your own side just to make sure the other side doesn't win.
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Honestly, it’s a cycle. The Leopards Eating People's Faces Party thrives on grievance. It tells you that you’ve been wronged and that the only solution is to let a wild animal loose in the room. By the time the furniture is shredded and the guests are bleeding, the leopard is usually too big to kick out.
Real-world examples that aren't just politics
While the meme is mostly political, the "face-eating" logic applies to business and tech too.
Consider the "Gig Economy." Many people initially loved the idea of "being their own boss" and the flexibility of driving for apps or doing freelance tasks. They supported the deregulation that allowed these companies to avoid classifying workers as employees.
Fast forward a few years. Pay rates drop. Algorithms change. Drivers realize they have no health insurance, no worker's comp, and no recourse when they get "deactivated" by a bot. They supported the platform's right to operate without "burdensome" labor laws, and then the platform used that exact freedom to squeeze them for every penny.
Or look at crypto. People threw their life savings into "unregulated" exchanges because they hated the "corrupt" banking system. Then the exchange owners vanished with the money, and those same people started asking why the government wasn't doing anything to protect them.
The leopard doesn't care if it's eating a political face or a financial one.
Is there a way out?
The trick to avoiding the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party is radical empathy mixed with a healthy dose of self-interest.
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Stop looking at who a policy is supposed to hurt and start looking at the power it grants. If you give someone the power to take away someone else's rights, you are giving them the power to take away yours. Power is rarely surgical. It’s a blunt instrument.
If a candidate says, "I'm going to destroy the systems that protect people," you have to assume that eventually, you'll be the person who needs protecting.
We also have to acknowledge the role of media echo chambers. If you only hear from people who say the leopard is actually a misunderstood kitten, you're going to be surprised when the biting starts. Diversifying where you get your news isn't just a "good habit"—it’s a survival strategy.
Ultimately, the meme stays relevant because the behavior is human. We want to be part of the winning team. We want to see our enemies lose. But in a representative democracy or a complex economy, we are all much more interconnected than we like to admit.
When the leopard starts eating, it doesn't stop until it's full. And leopards are almost never full.
How to spot a face-eating leopard in the wild
If you’re looking at a policy or a leader and trying to figure out if you’re about to get eaten, ask these three questions:
- Does this policy rely on hurting a specific group of people to "work"? If the answer is yes, you are just waiting in line. Eventually, the group of "people to be hurt" will expand to include you.
- Does the person asking for my support have a history of loyalty? Leopards aren't known for their loyalty to the people who feed them. Look at how they treated their last group of "passionate supporters."
- Am I being told that I am "special" or "exempt"? This is the biggest red flag. If the rules are being rewritten to exclude "the right people," the rules can be rewritten again the moment you are no longer useful.
Being an informed citizen means looking past the rhetoric and seeing the teeth. Don't be the person sobbing that you never thought the leopard would eat your face. Assume the leopard is hungry. Assume it likes the taste of everyone.
Practical Steps to Stay Face-Intact
To avoid falling into the trap of the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party, you need to change how you evaluate information.
- Audit your "enemies." Look at the people the "leopard" is attacking. Do they actually pose a threat to you, or is the threat being manufactured to keep you distracted?
- Follow the money. Face-eating policies usually benefit a very small group at the top. If you aren't in that top 0.1%, the leopard is probably eyeing you for dessert.
- Read the fine print. When a law is proposed to "own" the other side, read the actual text. See how it defines "compliance" or "authority."
- Practice "Worst Case" thinking. Don't think about how a power will be used by the person you like. Think about how it will be used by the person you hate most when they eventually get into power. That is the real power you are creating.