that is a great looking inflatable

It’s not so much that they become more extreme, but they start out that way and just continue. They justify it because they are in a state of revolution to force the change the want; it’s just that the revolution continues indefinitely

There’s usually a populist factor that authoritarians use to seize power

I’ve seen German students literally eating in class. It’s bizarre

As a German, you don’t understand the social constraints of a North American. Best not to ever eat anything any time. If you need to, get the most casual thing possible. Bringing something from home is lame

I think you went to school at a cult

I was in a small school and even then I can’t imagine the work it would take to arrange us in anything even close to a prescriptive order.

When third period ended, everyone had priorities. Maybe you need to hit the restroom to suck down a dart. Maybe you have to settle a beef with someone from second period PE. A romantic tryst in the north stairwell. Or you might be a normal kid and throw your shit in the locker and press up in the line, trying to cut as far forward as your social class allows. No matter how you use it, you have 45 minutes. If they tried to put us in some sort of prescribed order, that would be all we did that day

God, another reason to dislike Texas.
I usually skipped lunch and would pocket the cash my parents gave me to shoot hoops in the gym or play video games or watch TV in one of the computer labs. The only ones who had any sort of lunch restrictions were those in detention and, if I remember correctly, even then there was no specific seating arrangement unless they were associated with someone else as co-troublemakers.

ps edit: what was the point of “yellow”? Didn’t you generally go through the line with your friends anyway?

I haven’t seen any mention the social aspect. Kids could be sent with their own lunch, but (at least growing up the '90s) there was a lot of social pressure to conform. Bringing something from home invited scrutiny. One way to mitigate that was by bringing one of the popular pre-packaged products like Lunchables, which was certainly less nutritious than any regulated meal coming on a tray from the kitchen.

But this was Canada