"Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has followed Moscow's lead. Sixteen years have passed since the Hungarian leader last debated a competitor. …

Autocrats see debates as risky to their brand, and leaders who rely on corruption, violence, and lies don’t exactly want to be questioned —least of all Trump, who has multiple indictments hanging over him."

Trump #Putin #Orbán #debate #StrongMen #authoritarianism
/3

"He refused to debate his opponents during a 1999-2000 presidential race marked by the resumption of Russia's war with Chechnya and apartment building explosions around Moscow that were conveniently timed for him to emerge as the strongman able to restore order.

Avoiding debates became a feature of Putin's rule as he built a kleptocracy founded on secrecy and the silencing of rivals."

#Trump #Putin #debate #StrongMen #authoritarianism
/2

"It’s no surprise that Donald Trump, the leading GOP presidential contender, has declined to participate in tomorrow’s GOP presidential primary debate. That’s how demagogues behave. …

Russian President Vladimir Putin understands this well."

~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat

#Trump #Putin #debate #StrongMen #authoritarianism
/1

https://lucid.substack.com/p/demagogues-dont-debate-skipping-the

"Watch for higher education professionals to be increasingly targeted as agents of the destruction of family, decency, and nation as GOP politicians compete to seem more extremist and authoritarian —which will bring them even further into line with autocrats such as Orbán.

Far from being 'ivory towers' closed off from society, higher education institutions are often front-line targets of those who seek to destroy democracy."

#education #authoritarianism #strongmen #Republicans #Orbán
/2

"Authoritarians are happy to engineer the intellectual, social, and financial impoverishment of the educational sector to get rid of anyone who stands in the way of their dreams of national and ideological purity."

~Ruth Ben-Ghiat

#education #authoritarianism #strongmen #Republicans #Orbán
/1

https://lucid.substack.com/p/from-fascism-to-hungary-and-the-us

"This smackdown between two White male extremist brutes [DeSantis and Trump] may seem entertaining to some. Yet as a scholar of strongmen and the destruction they cause to societies, I see this macho posturing about who can be more commanding and violent as dangerous in myriad ways."

~ Ruth Ben-Ghiat

#DeSantis #Trump #fascism #strongmen #machismo #violence

https://lucid.substack.com/p/desantiss-fascist-style-macho-video

#BlackHistory #blackmastodon #blackheros
#strongmen el-Hajj Malik el- Shabazz
Malcolm X
https://youtu.be/M7SgS2yPRF0
Desk City (1963)

Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes,

"The rule of authoritarian history is that strongmen leaders will do anything to stay in office, starting wars or deepening their involvement in doomed conflicts. Political scientists call this phenomenon 'gambling for resurrection,' and almost all autocrats lose the wager."

The "resurrection" of themselves on which strongmen gamble unfortunately requires the deaths of many hapless others.

#authoritarianism #StrongMen

https://lucid.substack.com/p/from-mussolini-to-putin-and-xi-gambling

RT @ruthbenghiat@twitter.com

Dreary but true. As I write in #Strongmen, criminals have always been valuable members of authoritarian bureaucracies. The Nazis found they were the most imaginative torturers, for ex. That is one reason autocrats routinely pardon criminals, who are then free to assist them. https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1614583653048242178

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1614987756127625217

RT @ruthbenghiat@twitter.com

#Strongmen rarely give up. In a mid-December essay, "Coups Make a Comeback," I warned about this possibility and the GOP's part in it. "Bannon, an advisor to Jair #Bolsonaro, hoped that #Brazil would experience its own Jan. 6." 1/ .https://lucid.substack.com/p/coups-make-a-comeback-as-gop-elites https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1595374680285782016

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1612183612061011968

RT @ruthbenghiat@twitter.com

I write about coups & authoritarianism and how #Strongmen never give up. Brazil events are why I warn that GOP is unrepentant about J6 and would do it again tomorrow. Every journo who speaks to a GOP pol & does not ask on camera about support for J6 is normalizing it.

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1612193152634339331

RT @ruthbenghiat@twitter.com

#Strongmen rarely give up. In a mid-December essay, "Coups Make a Comeback," I warned about this possibility and the GOP's part in it. "Bannon, an advisor to Jair #Bolsonaro, hoped that #Brazil would experience its own Jan. 6." 1/ .https://lucid.substack.com/p/coups-make-a-comeback-as-gop-elites https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1595374680285782016

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1612183612061011968

RT @ruthbenghiat@twitter.com

This is why I discuss universities and what happens to them during authoritarianism throughout #Strongmen. In Pinochet's Chile neoliberalism & political repression worked together. 10,000s fired & sociology among departments abolished w/excuse they were "incubators of Marxism." https://twitter.com/DanLGolden/status/1610249775978319872

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1610351538513350659

Currently watching #robromvs #s4e1 #strongman 💪🏻 #strongmen #comedy

RT @ruthbenghiat
I love this #Strongmen https://twitter.com/ksadjadpour/status/1608864993860288513

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

1/3 of #Strongmen is about coups and the latest arrests abroad highlight how dangerous US situation is: instigator of coup free and running for president, major party calls coup "legitimate political discourse." Not hard to see where this could go.

RT @ruthbenghiat@twitter.com

Once again: it is almost inevitable that he continues down this path. He feels cast aside by former backers and in this situation #Strongmen become more not less rogue and extremist. https://twitter.com/bradmossesq/status/1596262274410237952

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1596345502605484033

RT @ruthbenghiat@twitter.com

Consistent with #Strongmen mentality, the decision of some "establishment" GOP & Murdoch to cast aside/humiliate Trump drives him to more loudly embrace the most extreme elements. He always cultivated Fascists but now they may be at center of his brand as others peel off. https://twitter.com/letsgomathias/status/1596208126088581120

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1596209618090221568

RT @cynparker_@twitter.com

@ArchyFantasies@twitter.com #Masculinity

#SeanConnery #Strongmen

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/cynparker_/status/1328876802924630016