Sitting here in europe looking in, its fairly obvious that 'Both sides' is just an excuse to explain away persecuting people as a political choice.
It's a pretty weak justification.
I can appreciate that stuff we grew up with and laughed at might not be acceptable nowadays, but that's no excuse to dig one's heels in and refuse to grow up.
Your rights end where mine begin.
If someone wants to do something that impacts my ability to live my life, that’s not something that should be a right, I.e. someone being gay doesn’t materially impact someone else’s ability to live their life but making their ability to exist as they are illegal does impact their ability to live their life.
I find it to be a fairly simple premise to guide myself by.
- Benito Juarez
For example smoking. Smoking in public is more clear due to 2nd hand smoking. But even smoking in private sucks for community because it costs a ton in healthcare.
"The" definition of fascism nowadays is what someone else believes
Nobody thinks that the left's liberal policies are creeping fascism, but rather its leftist, illiberal ones.
The right is criticized for 'fascism' for merely existing--the same policies they've advocated for decades without such accusations are suddenly 'fascist'! It's a matter of linguistic manipulation--of bad faith--and nothing more. It's frankly sad to see folks on HN who fall for this gutter sophistry, which is clearly aimed at people who have no conception whatever of history, whether of American politics or of fascism.
The left, on the other hand, is criticized for 'fascism' because they increasingly adopt, encourage, and condone the political program and tactics of fascist authoritarians. Because wherever they have control of institutions, they seek to use them to pursue political goals. Corporate DEI, corporate ESG policies, banks freezing assets of protesters, social media banning conservatives, corporations pushing the trans agenda--these are all examples of a now-familiar phenomenon in which captured corporations push unpopular progressive political goals. The merging of state, party and corporate power for the furtherance of progressive goals is, of course, the very heart of fascism. But that's not all! The left increasingly embraces the streetwise, strong-arm tactics of the brownshirts; by encouraging/defending the anti-social harassment of conservative politicians, remaining silent as conservatives were silenced on campuses around the country, defending corporations who censored conservatives (the only point on which progressives aggressively defend corporate power at the expense of the consumer), aggravating racial tension for political gain, openly encouraging riots that caused billions in damage and took many lives, and so on. Remember, on the eve of the 2020 election, city centers around the country were boarded up in fear that the mobs of angry people, masked and dressed in black, would swoop down and resume their months-long campaign of wonton destruction. And it wasn't the right that they were afraid of, but the left--and for good reason!