Of course I'm not denying that there are people in Harare who still support the ruling party who totally believe that headline, but the majority of people would laughitoff as a desperate measure - trying to fill in a void.
It's still giving me the confidence tolaughoff sneers about my middle-aged appearance, or - for that matter - to talk happily on the radio about my aging toenails.
However if liberals actually did laughoff his criticism because it came replete with copious references to science fiction and video games they were being unduly light hearted about important matters of philosophy and statecraft.