I must be the most authoritarian person in the world. At the school where I work I was part of overruling a vote by the junior student council (aged 6-9) to serve sushi as a school lunch simply because it was:
- Expensive (Requires unique ingredients that are not offered in bulk by any of the contractors delivering to the school)
- Impossible (Requires an impossible amount of work from each kitchen staff member for a single serving for each student)
- Poisonous (The fish we can get is decidedly not sushi grade and downright dangerous to eat raw)
- Illegal (Related to point 3, serving fish that is not thoroughly cooked would be an actual crime) and
- Insane (If you like sushi, can you imagine the disgusting mockery that would be a school lunch version made by three people for 800 students in 2 hours?)
Still, if a toothless but well meaning food waste campaign is the hallmark of authoritarianism, I was actually part of a small group of people with authority (in this case teachers) that straight up invalidated a democratic vote. I am authoritarian China, but even worse.