Why do politicians, business moguls, and Supreme Court justices insist on going undercover when clapping back at themselves on social media, in op-eds, or through whatever digital soapbox they find? It’s hardly a new trick—history’s full of anonymous pot-stirring.

Take the Federalist Papers—a masterclass in nameless persuasion. The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions? More anonymous ghostwriting. Even Supreme Court justices used to skip signing their opinions, like they were leaving a mystery novel’s ending to the reader. And then there’s Chief Justice John Marshall, the legal giant who apparently moonlighted as his own PR agent, anonymously duking it out with newspaper articles about himself.

Turns out, the powerful have always loved the anonymity loophole—it’s a way to have their cake, eat it, and deny they even brought dessert.