How do despotic totalitarian leaders try to stamp out opposition?

Les explains that when Jesus of Nazareth made inroads into Judaism, a religious fanatic saw Him as ruining their culture and religion, so the response was, “Got to stamp him out.” Saul of Tarsus then took the lead in persecuting Jewish believers who had recognized Christ as Messiah, and he did everything he could to stamp them out. Les says this is nothing new: the communists tried to do it for seventy years, Hitler did it, and every other despotic totalitarian leader will do the same thing—get rid of the opposition by putting them to death, hoping that those left are the pure followers. In Acts 26, Paul writes that he verily thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, that he shut up many saints in prison, received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, he was at the head of it. Les points out that the Jews did have authority within their religion to put their own people to death under the Roman Empire, and they must have put a number of them out of the way.