The Playground Taunt

Aspirational Autocrats Return to Tactics Gleaned from Schoolyard Squabbles

We hear it on playgrounds everywhere. “You did it,” yells one child. “No, YOU did it,” shouts the other. The teacher who intervenes in these blame games generally doesn’t have the time to get to the bottom of the fight. Maybe both kids were wrong. Or only one. The immediate problem is that the kids are fighting so the teacher concentrates on that. The substance cancels itself out like double negatives.

Aspirational autocrats these days know how to play that game. They have learned to reproduce these playground taunts by accusing their opponents of what they themselves are doing. The corrupt autocrat will (falsely) accuse his innocent critic of shoveling public money into her pockets. The critic (accurately) denies it – and (accurately) accuses the autocrat of stealing public funds. And what does the public hear? “You did it,” says one. “No, YOU did it,” says the other. Like the teacher in the playground, few have the time or patience to inquire into who was really right. The blame cancels out.

Aspirational autocrats get away with a lot this way. They do so by going first on offense so that attacks on the critics of the autocrat pile up, saying “You did it!” They then do precisely what they have accused their critics of doing so that, by the time the critic tries set the record straight, she looks like the kid on the playground who says, “No, you did it!” Because the fight makes everyone looks disruptive but not evil, the corrupt autocrat looks less bad than he otherwise would while the innocent critic looks tarnished.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has for years taunted his critics with allegations—without proof—that they were carrying out a plan under the direction of George Soros. When they accused him—with better evidence—of carrying out a plan under the direction of Vladimir Putin or in league with Xi Jinping, Orbán says that those accusations are simply further evidence of the extent of the Soros plot.

The case of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela offers another variation with bad faith on both sides. He specialized in conspiracy theories accusing critics of plotting to steal elections which were later met with his critics’ conspiracy theories about who eventually organized his death to anoint his successor.

The overall result in both Hungary and Venezuela was that many people stopped paying attention to any of the claims. Both depoliticization and (particularly in Venezuela) declining voter engagement set in as people found it impossible to discern the truth.

Donald Trump follows in a long line of aspirational autocrats who blame others for what they have done themselves.

He is showing us that he’s the master of the playground taunt.

As the Justice Department and the criminal justice systems of New York and Georgia prosecuted Trump in the run-up to the 2024 election, the once and future president accused his accusers of prosecuting him for political reasons. Trump said he was targeted by liberal prosecutors who were “Soros-backed,” that he was tried before conflicted judges, and that President Biden wanted him in jail.

In his criminal sentencing hearing before Judge Juan Merchan in New York last week, Trump repeated yet again, “It’s been a political witch hunt.” Trump’s reaction to this week’s release of one volume of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s report doubled down on this theme, declaring victory while blaming his accusers. “Deranged Jack Smith was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his ‘boss,’ Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He made clear that prosecution was persecution – and political.

With Trump now entering the White House and gaining control over the Department of Justice, what has he promised his allies? “I am your justice.” And what has he promised his opponents? “Retribution.”

Trump has announced repeatedly that he plans to go after those whom he believes attacked him “very unfairly.” He will do so by investigating and prosecuting them for purely political reasons. His nominee for FBI director even has an enemies list. Trump’s perceived enemies are preparing for the worst. But once those who are targeted say accurately that they are being investigated for political reasons, it will sound like, “No, YOU did it.”

With his playground taunts accumulating for months now, Trump has pre-delegitimized his critics. Once he metes out baseless investigations and prosecutions against them, his critics will then insist (with evidence) that the Trump DOJ is going after them for purely political reasons. But at that point who, except the few who pay close attention, will be patient enough to sort through the facts to know which side engaged in weaponizing the Justice Department without evidence of a crime?

The media have an important role to play in ensuring that citizens understand the difference between claims with evidence and baseless assertions. But aspirational autocrats do more than falsely accuse their opponents of what they themselves are doing; they also insist on being portrayed favorably in the media. Under autocratic pressure, media owners are tempted to go along to get along.

In Hungary, the media became a target of capture so that, by the time that Orbán’s “Soros lie” spread everywhere, there were few independent journalists left to verify the claims. As Hungarian journalist András Pethő recalled, “My editor and I were told by representatives of the outlet’s owners, a telecommunications company that had close ties with the government, to slow down the reporting, and they even asked for the removal of certain stories from the site.” In Venezuela, as journalist Milagros Soccoro explained, “News outlets started to self-censor, and those that did not gradually decreased the number of pages in their publications until they closed down. Or until they were shut down by the regime.”

As Trump assumes the presidency again, we are seeing the legacy media owned by oligarchs race to please him. The Contrarian itself was founded by a Washington Post columnist, Jen Rubin, who quit rather than tolerate the groveling. Another Contrarian contributor, Harry Litman, quit his columnist position at the L.A. Times for the same reason. When autocracy asks us to believe its lies, only a media outlet “not owned by anyone” (as our slogan would have it) can ensure its independence to be able to explain the truth.

What will American journalists do when Trump says, “You did it,” and Trump’s critics say, “No, YOU did it”? Will they let the blame cancel out? Here at the Contrarian, at least, we pledge to tell you which claims have evidence to support them and which are the smoke and mirrors of autocracy.

Kim Lane Scheppele

Princeton University