Noun
a ruler with absolute power and authority
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/despots
In the article, “No Place for Self-Pitty, No Room for Fear” the author, Toni Morrison states, “Dictators and tyrants routinely begin their reigns and sustain their power with the deliberate and calculated destruction of art: the censorship and book-burning of unpoliced prose, the harassment and detention of painters, journalists, poets, playwrights, novelists, essayists. This is the first step of a despot whose instinctive acts of malevolence are not simply mindless or evil; they are also perceptive. Such despots know very well that their strategy of repression will allow the real tools of oppressive power to flourish.”
The author Toni Morrison used the word DESPOTS by describing how the dictators and tryants had absolute power over everyone else.
