The words "authoritarian" & "totalitarian" are useless rhetorical inventions that have no correlation to how shit works in the real world.

Notice how these words only ever seem to apply to the state and never to corporations or other forms of social hierarchy.

What it does for the user of these terms:

• reduces discussion of collective social action to strictly discussing coercive capabilities of states
• subverts any discussion of power dynamics that considers organizations outside of the state (read corporations) as potentially antagonistic to self-determination.
• subverts any discussion of who the authority is acting upon while implying it is the individual
• derails the discussion to debunking the classification rather than discussing the merits of a proposition
• eliminates context for all actions by reducing them to the mere exercise of authority
• packages this context reduction as academic by using multi-syllabic words
• attaches immediate negative feelings to anything labelled by these words.
• pre-emptively defeats counterargument by implying that you want the state to impose its will on those less powerful.

The suggested remedy is always to reduce the power of the state, particularly to institutions constructed to protect public well-being. Anything that protects people can be framed as authoritarian because it impedes the power of others. The rhetorical positioning of the corporation always shrinks as needed to paint it as the victim rather than the oppressor. It's how anti-discrimination measures get laundered as "forcing a baker to bake a gay cake".

It is the perfect right-wing propaganda tool. Reject this framing outright. When I must abstractly discuss authority, I always ask a few questions:

• "when driving, what has a greater effect on your speed: the speed limit imposed by the state or the threat of losing your ability to feed and shelter yourself if fired for being late for work? "
• "how much more would you steal if theft were legal?"
• "how often does the law stop you from doing what you want?"
• "how often does your financial standing stop you from doing what you want?"
• "how often do the conditions surrounding your employment stop you from doing what you want?"