The Age of the Authoritarian Bully
My remarks at MOMA on bullying from the Fascists to Trump and Putin
On Sept. 30, I participated in a "salon" at the Museum of Modern Art, organized by the star curator Paola Antonelli. The timely subject: The Age of the Bully. I spoke about authoritarian bullies on a panel with filmmaker Alex Gibney, social scientist Simon DeDeo, environmental lawyer Stephen Donzinger, performer Damian Norfleet, and psychologist Betsy Levy Paluck. Here is a link to the livestream.
Here are my remarks, along with the illustrations I showed.
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I'm going to speak about the nexus of the age of the bully and the age of authoritarianism. Authoritarian leaders appeal to bullies who already exercise their skills in the workplace, at home, and on the street, but such leaders also elevate bullying by giving it a political value in societies based on coercion and domination.
Democracies produce plenty of bullies, including in the worlds of culture, tech, business, and finance. Corporations are skilled at bullying, and the myth of the male genius, whether the auteur in cinema or the tech broligarch, feeds into this as well.
But authoritarianism integrates bullying into state practices, because such states depend on violence, intimidation, and on getting people into states of submission and surrender. A favorite authoritarian game is "making an example" of people, since staging occasions of public bullying encourages others to embrace cruelty.
This is one reason that the Nazis forced Jewish doctors and other professionals to scrub the streets on their knees, surrounded by a mocking crowd. The dynamic staged among the victims, officials, and bystander-participants was key for this pedagogy of cruelty.
As Karen Stenner and other scholars have found, about 30% of the population holds authoritarian attitudes to private life issues, from childrearing to family hierarchies and gender relations. Such people do not permit dissent or insubordination and they need to put people down to make themselves feel powerful, so they engage in bullying performances, whether it is in front of other family members, at sporting events, or in boardrooms.
These authoritarian personalities can then be "activated" when a demagogue gives those values a political expression. They feel at home with this demagogue and respect him, so even though they are the mini-Mussolinis at home or at work, they willingly submit to the leader outside the home, the leader being the only person who can bully and not be bullied in return.
Authoritarians use ritual humiliation to "keep order" in their worlds, fulfill their ego needs, and calm their insecurities. Trump is a master bully who uses ritual humiliation to “keep order” within the GOP.
When Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) showed up at Trump's January 2024 campaign stop in New Hampshire, he thought he would gain points for loyalty. Instead, he was debased on national television when Trump reminded him that Nikki Haley, a politician from his own state, never supported him. "You must really hate her," a smirking Trump said.
Scott responded to Trump in a way that showed he knew his role in the bullying dynamic: "I just love you." Note the face of fellow Trump supplicant Vivek Ramaswamy as he witnesses the bullying. He knows he is part of the show.
The authoritarian bully reserves his most scathing treatment for those who love him most openly: his grassroots followers. He lets them know that he thinks they are worthless and makes clear he is just using them. During the Iowa caucus, Trump told his followers to show up and vote for him in subzero temperatures even if they were sick. "Even if you vote, and then you pass away, it will be worth it," Trump declared.
Bullying also occurs among world leaders as part of a dominance game. Hitler and Mussolini set the template. Hitler worshipped Mussolini and kept a bust of him on his desk in the 1920s, and then when Hitler became the stronger one he would call Mussolini and yell at him. He rescued Mussolini from prison after Il Duce had been overthrown in July 1943, then a few months later Hitler invaded Italy. Mussolini became the head of a Nazi puppet state, and the Gestapo monitored his movements and communications.
Today we have Putin and Trump, Trump praises Putin publicly and Putin has Trump mocked on Russian TV as a loser. The body language of their 2018 encounter in Helsinki, which I analyzed for CNN, showed who was in charge.
Authoritarianism is institutionalized bullying, and so it has always been. In the conclusion to Strongmen, I quote from the 1931 book Techniques of the Coup d'Etat by the writer and journalist Curzio Malaparte. He was a Fascist who liked to push the boundaries of the regime’s censorship, and he tried to warn Germans about Hitler based on Italy's experiences with Mussolini.
Malaparte’s observation about the way Hitler was treating his enablers reminds us that the psychological needs of authoritarian bullies, and the disastrous outcomes of their rule, have not changed much in a century.
“He channels his brutality into humbling their pride, crushing their freedom of conscience, diminishing their individual merits and transforming his supporters into flunkeys stripped of all dignity. Like all dictators, Hitler loves only those whom he can despise.”
Very interesting! When you described family bullying I founds myself wondering if all the bullies are men, or if women do it, too. I loved the photos showing who was in charge, between Putin and trump. They were a real eye-opener for me. The other thing I find very interesting is how someone who is a bully subjects himself to bullying by others.
Bullies rely on violence. Trump Calls For A Day Of Violence: See What History Tells Us It Might Look Like With This Infographic
https://infogram.com/day-of-political-violence-1hmr6g817zzeo2n