Authoritarian aggression typically targets the helpless and is legitimized by higher authority

Evidence

Do you notice how seldom authoritarians aggress against others in a fair fight? The victim is usually already under control, as in a prison, or else caught unawares, outnumbered, or overwhelmingly outweaponed. Women, children, and others unable to defend themselves are typical targets. Attacks occur at night by hooded men, or when the victim has been isolated or when his or her back is turned. Undoubtedly authoritarians fear retaliation and legal punishment. But doesn’t their behavior suggest an enjoyment of power per se? Something else is at work here, for authoritarian aggression is done in the name of some higher authority. This authority gives the attack legitimacy in the minds of the aggressors, and they will often say they are proud of what they did. Yet what they did was almost always extraordinarily cowardly. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3875

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to vault claims on authoritarianism’s moral legitimization strategies; group-based dominance over the weak echoes Milgram/Bandura theory.