Cruel and oppressive rulers or leaders who hold absolute power and use it harshly against their people.
From Greek 'tyrannos,' possibly from a non-Greek language. In ancient Greece, it originally just meant an absolute ruler, but evolved to mean 'oppressive ruler.'
Some of history's most famous tyrants like Napoleon and Hitler believed they were actually helping their people through authoritarian control—a phenomenon psychologists call 'moral disengagement' that lets bad leaders justify cruelty!
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