I don’t think you know what authoritarianism is

I think we do know what you think it is: “horseshoe theory”; Arendtian “totalitarianism.” https://lemmy.ml/comment/17774014

the idea of paying a scientist of any kind the same as a cashier at a gas station is ridiculous.

This isn’t even a straw man; it’s an allusion to an unstated straw man. No one is suggesting that everyone should be paid the same, and AFAIK no socialist state has ever done it.