'Ritual humiliation': Authoritarian expert shows how Putin and Trump are acting the same

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat explained that authoritarian leaders have a tendency to humiliate people publicly and that's what Russian President Vladimir Putin did to Tucker Carlson this week and what Donald Trump did to Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) when he showed up in New Hampshire for a rally.

"Did you ever think [Haley] actually supported you, Tim? And you're the senator of her state...You must really hate her," she recalled Trump saying about Nikki Haley saying she'd support Scott if he was the nominee.

Scott stepped in to say, "I just love you!"

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"Scott intervened in the only way he knew to end this embarrassing spectacle: giving Trump what he wanted," wrote Ben-Ghiat.

While in Moscow this week, the disgraced former Fox host was being embarrassed by Putin.

"Surely this would further Carlson's ambitions to be the Joseph Goebbels of today's global far right!" she quipped. Instead, he revealed that Carlson had once wanted to join the C.I.A. but was rejected.

"Maybe we should thank God they didn't let you in... [T]hey have always been our opponents," Putin half-joked. She explained it was an implication that Carlson wouldn't be able to work at the "Kremlin propaganda services" if he worked for the C.I.A.

Ben-Ghait noticed Carlson's face showed the realization that he wasn't prepared for Putin talking down to him or showing off his knowledge of their own personal secrets or weaknesses to throw them off.

Both illustrate what she called a "favorite strongman sport: ritual humiliation."

"Autocrats are fragile and insecure creatures who are always looking over their shoulder to see who is after them," Ben-Ghait wrote. "To build themselves up and deter others from challenging their power, they take others down in public, letting them know exactly where they stand and how much they scorn them."

Such humiliation also creates an environment where no one feels safe, regardless of what they do to help the leader.

"And yet these leaders never lack a steady supply of opportunists and profiteers who are all too willing to play his game to the detriment of their dignity. The GOP is the latest example," she said.

Read the full commentary in the piece.